BATON ROUGE - A death row inmate convicted of killing Betty Smothers — a BRPD officer and mother of six, including local football legend Warrick Dunn — was denied his chance at escaping the death penalty.

The WBRZ Investigative Unit learned Monday that the Louisiana Board of Pardons refused Henri Broadway's request for clemency.

During the hearing, Smothers' son Warrick Dunn told the board the impact from the loss of his mom lingers. 

"It's frustrating because people sacrifice their lives," Dunn said. "We let someone off death row and let them have clemency. Any individual in this country thinks that I can go around and shoot and kill people and their consequence is that they will spend the rest of their life in prison eating three meals a day."

Smothers, a BRPD corporal, was killed in the ambush attack back in 1993. A second man implicated in the killing was previously sentenced to life in prison.

It comes amid a push to clear out the more than 50 inmates on Louisiana's death row. Earlier this year, all of those inmates sent letters to Governor John Bel Edwards after he publicly acknowledged he was opposed to the death penalty. 

"I don't want innocent people to die or lose their life," Dunn said. "I'm all about that. But, in this case don't. Don't make me and my family suffer all these years. At 18 years old, I had to become a father and take care of my brothers and sisters."

Despite support from some, the effort has been met with stiff opposition from prosecutors across the state and has so far yielded no successful clemency requests.

Five people are still eligible for administrative hearings to determine if they will be eligible for a clemency hearing. One of the five, Todd Wessinger, is from Baton Rouge.