Calcasieu District Attorney John DeRosier is seeking an August 19th execution date for Jason Manuel Reeves, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2004 for the abduction of four-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen, who Reeves raped and stabbed 16 times, and slit her throat. DeRosier says Reeves deserves to die for what he did.

“The crime that Reeves committed against this four-year-old girl is absolutely unspeakable, and I just can’t think of a word that is worse than that.”

Reeves took Thigpen from her family in Moss Bluff on November 1st, 2001.

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by Reeves, which prompted a death warrant from the local prosecutor.

It’s been nine years since the state executed a prisoner, and Louisiana has been unable to find a pharma company willing to supply the chemicals needed for lethal injections to be carried out. DeRosier says between that and legal delays.

“We find ourselves ten or fifteen years into death penalty cases, and they are still lingering when they should not be. If they are going to have the death penalty it should be enforced. If we are not going to enforce it, then something else needs to happen.”

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