BATON ROUGE - The former House Speaker who oversaw the writing of the new Louisiana Constitution, E.L. "Bubba" Henry, died Wednesday, The Advocate reported. He was 89.

Henry was elected into the House of Representatives in 1968 and was the Speaker from 1972 until 1980. Henry was the leader of the "Young Turks," a group of younger state representatives who pushed for reducing the number of state employees and wanted government spending cuts. He ran for governor in 1979 but lost to Dave Treen. He was Treen's Commissioner of Administration until 1984.

WBRZ reported on Henry in 2017 when he testified in favor of a bill to get rid of the death penalty. 

"I don't believe it's a deterrent for crime, it hasn't been. I don't think it's likely to be a deterrent for crime going forward. There is no reason to believe that it is...it won't be because of the inequity that exists," he said. 

Funeral arrangements have not been made public yet.