COURTNEY LeBLANC - 12 yo (2002) - Shreveport LA

“I’m not one of the guys who (sic) is going to say: ‘I’m not
guilty.’ I am guilty. If someone did to my daughter or to anyone what I
did to Courtney (LeBlanc) then in my opinion they deserve the death
penalty. Why should I look at it any differently for myself?”
— Gerald Bordelon, a convicted child killer

Gerald Bordelon wants to die. He's about to get his wish.Bordelon
is scheduled Thursday to be the first person executed in Louisiana in
nearly eight years. He'll also be the state's first-ever death row
defendant to forego all appeals and proceed with execution.Since
confessing to kidnapping, raping and murdering his 12-year-old
stepdaughter in November 2002, Bordelon actively has sought his
execution and vigorously defended his right to waive all appeals.That
quest has made Bordelon exceptional among his fellow death row inmates,
who usually fight to stay alive through a lengthy appeal process. It's
also put him at the center of one of the nation's most contentious
death penalty debates.On
one side are capital punishment foes who say death row defendants
should not be allowed to waive appeals, which are an essential element
of American jurisprudence. A thorough evaluation of a death penalty
case is necessary to ensure constitutionality of a verdict and sentence
and verify that the defendant is indeed guilty. Even more scrutiny
should be applied to defendants seeking to eliminate appeals as mental
illness or other psychological problems often attributed to confinement
on death row may be interfering with rational decision making, they say."Our
system of capital punishment depends on ... providing fairness and
vindicating the constitutional rights of capital defendants before they
are executed," said John Holdridge, director of the ACLU Capital
Punishment Project in Durham, NC. "Someone who is volunteering (for
execution) is basically saying I don't care if my constitutional rights
are being violated, I want to be executed. We as citizens do care ...
we do care if they are guilty and, even if they are guilty, we care
about the Constitution."

More on this story here:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20100103/SPECIALPROJECTS11/1030336/Condemned-killer-fought-for-execution

ANGOLA — Convicted child rapist and murderer Gerald J. Bordelon died
Thursday night by lethal injection after expressing remorse for his
crimes and apologizing profusely to the victim’s family, Louisiana
State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain and media witnesses said.Bordelon,
47, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m., a few minutes after being
administered three drugs to put him to sleep, stop his breathing and
stop his heart, Cain said.A Livingston Parish jury convicted
Bordelon of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death in 2006 for
kidnapping, molesting and killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter,
Courtney LeBlanc, in November 2002.Bordelon was a two-time sex
offender on parole when he kidnapped LeBlanc from his estranged wife’s
home on Linder Road north of Denham Springs on Nov. 15, 2002.He
said in a taped confession to authorities that he took the girl to
Mississippi, where he said he forced her to perform oral sex on him.Investigators
found LeBlanc’s body 11 days later when Bordelon led them to a wooded
area on the East Baton Rouge side of the Amite River near Denham
Springs. She had been strangled.Associated Press reporter and
execution witness Melinda Deslatte said Bordelon specifically addressed
LeBlanc’s mother, sister and uncle before they witnessed the execution.“I’m
sorry. I don’t know if that brings any closure or peace. It should have
never happened, but it did and I’m sorry,” Deslatte quoted Bordelon.Livingston
Parish News Managing Editor Mike Dowty, another execution witness, said
Bordelon seemed more focused about the “things between the family and
his family” than on his death.Bordelon was the 28th person
executed for murder in Louisiana since executions resumed in 1983
following a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision that threw out all
existing death penalty laws in the nation.Bordelon was the
eighth executed by lethal injection and the first in modern times to
die without exercising his constitutional rights to appeal his
conviction and sentence. Before Bordelon’s death, Louisiana’s last
execution occurred in May 2002.Angola spokeswoman Cathy Fontenot
said 81 prisoners remain on Death Row at Angola, and two women
condemned to die are housed at Louisiana Correctional Institute for
Women at St. Gabriel.Television reporter Chris Nakamoto, who
also witnessed the execution, said Bordelon wore a gold cross on a
chain that his daughter had given him. Bordelon gave his daughter a
necklace with a cross made by an Angola inmate.In a written statement read by his attorney, Jill Craft, Bordelon said the murder “shouldn’t have happened.”“Courtney’s
family suffered; my family has suffered. I feel like I am doing the
right thing by standing up and taking responsibility,” Bordelon wrote.Craft
said Bordelon confessed to other criminal activity during her visits
with him, but she said she was not at liberty to disclose them.Bordelon
spent the earlier part of his last day at Angola visiting with family
members until 3 p.m., and then ate his last meal of fried sac-a-lait,
crawfish étouffée, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cookies,
sharing the meal with Cain, his attorney and spiritual adviser and
several other Angola officials.Cain described Bordelon as “very upbeat, cheerful and very remorseful” during the meal.“He ate. Most other (prisoners facing execution) just play with their food. He ate heartily,” the warden said.Bordelon watched out a window as his family left the area to stay at a chapel at another part of the prison, Cain said.Cain said Bordelon talked about LeBlanc during his meeting with him near the death chamber.“All he said about Courtney is, ‘I did it, I’m guilty and nobody else had anything to do with it,’ ” Cain said.The
Associated Press reported that after Bordelon made his final statement,
seven men strapped him to the black padded gurney and removed his
shackles. Wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans, he stared at the ceiling as
prison officials closed the curtains for the insertion of the
intravenous tubes.The curtains were reopened after he was
connected to the IVs. Bordelon spoke to Cain, and he took several deep
breaths as the drugs took hold. The warden said the convicted killer
again repeated his remorse and asked Cain to tell his daughter that he
wasn’t afraid.At 6:32 p.m., Cain said, “We now pronounce Gerald Bordelon dead. We’ve sent his soul for final judgment.”Death
penalty opponents with the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana
held a vigil in New Orleans at the time of the execution.The
Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in October that Bordelon was competent to
waive his appeals in state and federal courts, saying testimony from
psychiatrists who examined him excludes the possibility that his waiver
was influenced by brain damage, mental retardation or personality
disorders that impair cognitive function.The testimony also
excludes the possibility that Bordelon’s decision was the “product of
despair and suicidal ideation,” the high court’s opinion says.At
the same time, the Supreme Court reviewed the death sentence, finding
that it was not excessive because the jury found that the girl was
killed during the commission of aggravated rape and second-degree
kidnapping.When he married Jennifer Kocke, the victim’s mother,
in 2001, Bordelon’s parole terms prohibited him from having contact
with minors.The state Parole Board, however, modified the terms
of his parole to allow unsupervised contact with minors as long as the
parent or guardian knew of his sex crime history.He was
sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 1982 to sexual
battery, and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his 1990
conviction for forcible rape and two counts of aggravated crime against
nature.Bordelon and Kocke soon separated after LeBlanc and her
sister told their mother that Bordelon touched them inappropriately,
but Kocke remained in contact with Bordelon after the split, the state
Supreme Court’s opinion says.Kocke was convicted of child abuse
by a Mississippi jury for failing to keep Bordelon away from her
children. Kocke received a suspended five-year sentence, with five
years of probation.