What SB 91 Does:

• 📌Creates a framework for reduced sentencing when clear and convincing evidence shows a defendant’s offense was substantially caused by trauma from abuse, trafficking, or sexual violence. 
• 🔁Allows individuals already serving sentences to seek resentencing if they meet these criteria. 
• 🧠Enables expert testimony on trauma’s effects to inform courts during sentencing. 
• ⚖️Promotes individualized justice without compromising accountability, ensuring mitigation is fairly applied where appropriate. 

Why It Matters:

Survivors of prolonged abuse or exploitation often face long-term psychological effects that can lead to justice system involvement. SB 91 gives judges the tools to consider trauma’s role in criminal behavior and to impose sentences that are fair and proportionate — helping break cycles of punishment that fail to address root causes. 

Louisiana can lead with a justice system that is smart, fair, and trauma-informed. SB 91 moves the state in that direction.