Louisiana Voice

Well, you gotta wonder what this guvner is up to.

But then, maybe not.

After all, it’s never been any secret that Jeff Landry prefers closed doors to all his back room deals.

What’s that slogan that can be found beneath the masthead of The Washington Post?

Oh, yeah, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

And this blog carries its own masthead slogan: “It is understandable when a child is afraid of the dark, but unforgivable when a man fears the light.”

But all that seems to matter little to our little tinhorn would-be dictator.

• It wasn’t enough that he joined nine other Republican state attorneys general in a baseless VOTER-FRAUD LAWSUIT while he was Louisiana’s attorney general.
• It wasn’t enough that he DECLINED to join other attorneys general in condemning the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, well, because his fingers were all over robocalls that went out by GOP AGS to INCITE that very event.
• It wasn’t enough that Landry pushed for passage of a law that requires RESIDENCY STATUS of anyone seeking public record from the state – because an INDIANAPOLIS RESIDENT made a couple of requests that were potentially embarrassing to Landry, again while he was attorney general.
• It wasn’t enough that while serving as the state’s supposed top legal officer, he actually SUED A REPORTER for the Baton Rouge Advocate when the reporter had the temerity to make a perfectly legal public records request.
• And it wasn’t enough that Landry managed to push through legislation that all but removes any ENFORCEMENT POWERS to the Louisiana Public Records Act (LA. R.S. LA. R.S. 44.1 (et seq.)) by eliminating monetary penalties for non-compliance, or that he VETOED a bill that sought to expand access to public employee records.
• But also like Bobby Jindal before him, he found it in his heart to take on the already all-but-powerless State Ethics Board by PACKING THE BOARD with four additional (hand-picked) members, increasing the board’s size from 11 to 15. Now, that wouldn’t be because the board had the unmitigated gall to cite him for accepting private airplane flights from a contributor, Greg Mosing, would it? Nah, of course not. He would stoop to such cheap political maneuvers the way Jindal, who had experienced similar difficulties with the board, did.
• Hell, it ain’t like the State Ethics Board is a toothless tiger already. Just take a look at the outstanding fines that CANDIDATES seem to be in no hurry to pay, or similar uncollected fines levies against POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES that remain outstanding.
• Nor was it enough that Landry and his hand-picked successor, sock puppet Liz Murrill are willing to spend an ungodly (pardon the bad pun) amount to defend an indefensible law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every. single. classroom. in every. single. public. school. in. Louisiana. The First Amendment clearly says that there shall be no law “respecting an establishment of religion…” but Landry and Murrill apparently have no problem dictating what we can and cannot have access to in our public libraries in some warped idea of protecting the fragile sensitivities of Louisiana citizens.

But here’s the kicker about protecting our citizens: that apparent concern on the part of Landry and Murrill apparently does not extend to the guarantee of justice for the wrongfully convicted.

I have completed a manuscript for a new book entitled 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana, which will be published later this year. The book takes a detailed look at 101 Louisiana citizens who were shipped off to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola – some given life sentences, others actually sent to death row – for crimes they never committed. Some of these 101 human beings rotted away behind bars literally for decades before being exonerated.

Many of those were from New Orleans where former District Attorney Harry Connick’s office made it a regular practice to exclude exculpatory evidence that, had it been revealed at trial, would have resulted in not guilty verdicts.

National statistics place one in 20 (5%) criminal cases result in wrongful convictions. With some 32,000 inmates in Louisiana’s nine prisons, that works out to about 1,600 persons who may be currently sitting behind bars because of wrongful convictions.

That estimate is, of course, subjective and unscientific, a guess at best. But if there is a single person unjustly convicted of a crime for which he or she is not guilty, that is one too damned many.

All that matter little to Landry who earlier this year signed into law post-conviction relief changes that he pompously proclaimed would “make our streets and communities safer for all.”

This is no attempt to defend those who are genuinely guilty of committing crimes against society but it is an indictment of the practice of sending away innocent people to be forgotten (out of sight, out of mind) by that same society – people who have families who love and miss them.

But thanks to Landry, Murrill and a “Christian” Republican legislature that would have kept John the Baptist imprisoned despite his innocence, or who would’ve condemned Jesus Christ for being “woke,” sympathetic district attorneys like Orleans Parish’s Jason Williams no longer have the option of correcting injustices. Also featured in the overhaul of the criminal justice system was an expanded death penalty provision and an end to good-time parole.

Since Williams took office in 2021, he established a civil rights division in the district attorney’s office which helped vacate about 150 convictions and to reduce sentences in another 180 but Act 10 of this year’s legislative session put the kibosh on all that. DAs and judges no longer have the discretion to waive legal time limits to reach such agreements years after a conviction. It also gives Murrill the power to challenge any such agreements.

Act 10 prompted Andrew Hundley, executive director of the Louisiana Parole Project to observe, “There’s an uglier history in New Orleans. We should prioritize getting it right, even decades later, over simply maintaining convictions.”

But “getting it right” was never on the radar of Landry/Murrill. It’s all about power through the perception of “law and order.” To hell with justice.