FLT CREW FOUND TXWY LIGHTS ON THE R SIDE OF TXWY D WERE NOT ILLUMINATED; AND THE SIGN MARKING THE RAMP WAS ALSO NOT ILLUMINATED. THE CREW TAXIED INTO THE GRASS AREA AS A RESULT.

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I AM WRITING THIS FORM IN REGARDS TO THE EVENT THAT TOOK PLACE IN BATON ROUGE; LA ON MARCH; MON 2004. I AM A FO FOR ACR X AIRLINES. ON THE NIGHT OF MARCH MON; I WAS THE PNF ON FLIGHT ABCD FROM XXX TO BTR. AFTER LNDG IN BTR ON RWY 13; CAPT TAXIED THE ACFT TO THE RAMP. ON TXWY DELTA; WE HAD PASSED THE LAST BLUE LIT TXWY EDGE LIGHT AND THE CAPT BEGAN TO MAKE HIS SLOW R TURN INTO THE RAMP AREA. DURING THE TURN; THE TAXI/RECOG LIGHTS BEGAN TO ILLUMINATE A BLACK NON LIT TAXI SIGN. THE CAPT CONTINUED TO TURN TO AVOID THE OBJECT AND SUBSEQUENTLY TAXIED INTO A CLEAR AREA THAT WE BOTH REALIZED WAS A GRASSY AREA. THE CAPT BROUGHT THE ACFT TO A SAFE STOP AND WE CONTACTED ATC. THE CAPT THEN INFORMED THE FA OF THE SITUATION AS WELL AS THE PAX. VERY SHORTLY THEREAFTER; MAINT WAS AT THE ACFT AND THEY TOWED THE ACFT TO THE GATE. NO DAMAGE WAS DONE TO THE PLANE AND ALL PAX DEPLANED UNINJURED. THIS TAXIING EVENT WAS A RESULT OF A NUMBER OF BLUE TXWY EDGE IDENTIFIER LIGHTS BEING OUT. THESE OUT OF SERVICE LIGHTS WERE ON THE EDGE OF DELTA AND THE EDGE RAMP AREA. THEY WERE NOT NOTAMED OUT AND AT NIGHT THOSE LIGHTS BEING OUT GAVE A FALSE SENSE OF WHERE THE START OF THE RAMP AREA ACTUALLY WAS. I FEEL THAT IF THOSE BLUE EDGE LIGHTS; AS WELL AS THE TXWY IDENTIFIER SIGN (THAT WAS ALSO OUT OF SERVICE); WOULD HAVE BEEN NOTAMED OUT OF SERVICE THAT THIS TAXIING EVENT WOULD NOT HAVE OCCURRED. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: TAXIING ON D TXWY; THE CREW WAS EXPECTING A R TURN ONTO THE RAMP AREA. A STRING OF TXWY MARKER LIGHTS AND A SIGN MARKING THE RAMP WERE OUT. THE CREW THOUGHT THEY WERE TURNING ONTO A RAMP AREA.