Louisiana
Louisiana law sweeps 17-year-olds arrested for lesser crimes into adult court • Louisiana Illuminator
In February, a prosecutor from a rural area outside Baton Rouge asked members of Louisiana’s Senate judiciary committee to imagine a frightening scene: You are home with your wife at 4 a.m. when suddenly a 17-year-old with a gun appears. The teenager won’t hesitate, District Attorney Tony Clayton said. “He will kill you and your wife.”
According to Clayton, teenagers were terrorizing the state without fear of consequences. The only way to stop them was to prosecute all 17-year-olds in adult court, regardless of the offense, and lock them up in prison. Law enforcement officials from around the state made similar arguments. Legislators quickly passed a bill that lowered the age at which the justice system must treat defendants as adults from 18 to 17.
But according to a review of arrests in the five months since the law took effect, most of the 17-year-olds booked in three of the state’s largest parishes have not been accused of violent crimes. Verite News and ProPublica identified 203 17-year-olds who were arrested in Orleans, Jefferson and East Baton Rouge parishes between April and September. A total of 141, or 69%, were arrested for offenses that are not listed as violent crimes in Louisiana law, according to our analysis of jail rosters, court records and district attorney data.
Just 13% of the defendants — a little over two dozen — have been accused of the sort of violent crimes that lawmakers cited when arguing for the legislation, such as rape, armed robbery and murder. Prosecutors were able to move such cases to adult court even before the law was changed.
The larger group of lesser offenses includes damaging property, trespassing, theft under $1,000, disturbing the peace, marijuana possession, illegal carrying of weapons and burglary. They also include offenses that involve the use of force, such as simple battery, but those are not listed in state law as violent crimes either, and they can be prosecuted as misdemeanors depending on the circumstances.
In one case in New Orleans, a boy took a car belonging to his mother’s boyfriend without permission so he could check out flooding during Hurricane Francine last month, according to a police report. When the teen returned the car, the front bumper was damaged. The boyfriend called police and the teen was arrested for unauthorized use of a vehicle. In another case, a boy was charged with battery after he got into a fight with his brother about missing a school bus.
In July, a 17-year-old girl was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with a law enforcement investigation. She had shoved a police officer as he was taking her older sister into custody for a minor charge resulting from a fight with another girl. None of those defendants have had an opportunity to enter a plea so far; convictions could result in jail or prison time of up to two years.
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In juvenile court, teenagers facing charges such as these could be sentenced to a detention facility, but the juvenile system is mandated to focus on rehabilitation and sentences are generally shorter than in adult court, juvenile justice advocates said. And in the juvenile system, only arrests for violent crimes and repeat offenses are public record. But because these 17-year-olds are in the adult system, they all have public arrest records that can prevent them from getting jobs or housing.
Rachel Gassert, the former policy director for the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, said there was one word to describe what she felt when Verite News and ProPublica shared their findings: “Despair.”
Eight years ago, Gassert and other criminal justice advocates convinced lawmakers to raise the age for adult prosecution from 17 to 18 years old, pointing to research that shows that the human brain does not fully develop until early adulthood and that youth are more likely to reoffend when they are prosecuted as adults. The law enacted this spring was the culmination of a two-year effort to reverse that.
“The whole push to repeal Raise the Age was entirely political and all about throwing children under the bus,” Gassert said. “And now we are seeing the tire treads on their backs.”
Gov. Jeff Landry’s office, Clayton and state Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, who sponsored the bill to roll back Raise the Age, did not respond to requests for comment. The Louisiana District Attorneys Association, which supported the bill, declined to comment.
The whole push to repeal Raise the Age was entirely political and all about throwing children under the bus. And now we are seeing the tire treads on their backs.
– Rachel Gassert, former policy director, Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights
Louisiana is the only state to have passed and then fully reversed Raise the Age legislation. It’s one of four states, along with Georgia, Texas and Wisconsin, that automatically prosecute all 17-year-olds as adults. In other states, 17-year-olds can be prosecuted as adults only in special circumstances, such as when they are charged with a serious, violent crime like murder.
Landry and his Republican allies argued that Raise the Age and other liberal policies were responsible for a pandemic-era uptick in violent offenses committed by juveniles in Louisiana. They said juvenile courts, where a sentence can’t extend past a defendant’s 21st birthday, are too lenient.
Juvenile justice advocates argued that the law would cause teenagers to be prosecuted as adults for behaviors that are typical for immature adolescents. These 17-year-olds would face long-lasting consequences, including arrest records and prison time. And the harm would fall largely on Black children. Nearly 9 out of every 10 of the 17-year-olds arrested in Orleans and East Baton Rouge parishes are Black, Verite News and ProPublica found. (A similar figure couldn’t be calculated for Jefferson Parish because some court records weren’t available.)
Opponents of the law also pointed out that the data didn’t show a link between enacting the Raise the Age legislation and a surge in violent crime. In 2022, when then-Attorney General Landry and others first tried to repeal the law, crime data analyst Jeff Asher said in a legislative hearing that Louisiana’s increase in homicides during the pandemic was part of a national trend that began before Raise the Age was passed.
“It happened in red states. It happened in blue states. It happened in big cities, small towns, suburbs, metro parishes,” Asher told lawmakers. Starting in 2023, data has shown a significant drop in homicides in Louisiana and nationwide.
Conservative lawmakers dismissed Asher’s numbers and instead cited horrific crimes committed by teenagers, such as the brutal killing of 73-year-old Linda Frickey amid a surge in carjackings in New Orleans in 2022. In that incident, four teenagers between 15 and 17 years old stole Frickey’s SUV in broad daylight. One of them kicked, punched and pepper-sprayed her as he pulled her out of the vehicle, according to court testimony. Frickey, who had become tangled in her seat belt, was dragged alongside the vehicle. Landry argued that teenagers who commit such heinous crimes must be punished as adults.
Opponents said the Frickey case instead showed why the law wasn’t needed: District attorneys in Louisiana have long had the discretion to move cases involving the most serious crimes out of juvenile court, which is what Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams did. Three girls who took part in the carjacking pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were each sentenced to 20 years in prison; the 17-year-old who attacked Frickey and drove her car was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
After the attempt to repeal the Raise the Age law failed in 2022, lawmakers passed a bill in 2023. It was vetoed by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. “Housing seventeen year olds with adults is dangerous and reckless,” Edwards said in a written statement at the time. “They often come out as seasoned criminals after being victimized.”
This year, with Landry in lockstep with the Republican supermajority in the Legislature, the law sailed through. For Landry, who was elected on an anti-crime platform, the law’s passage fulfilled a campaign pledge. When the law took effect, he declared, “No more will 17-year-olds who commit home invasions, carjack, and rob the great people of our State be treated as children in court.”
Now these teenagers are treated as adults from arrest to sentencing. In New Orleans, that means that when a 17-year-old is arrested, police no longer alert their parents, a step that department policy requires for juveniles, according to a department spokesperson. It’s not clear if law enforcement agencies elsewhere in the state have made a similar change.
All 17-year-olds arrested in New Orleans are now booked into the Orleans Parish jail, where those charged with crimes not classified as violent have spent up to 15 days before being released pending trial. Though the jail separates teens from adults, it has been under a court-ordered reform plan since 2013 after the Department of Justice found routine use of excessive force by guards and rampant inmate-on-inmate violence. Federal monitors said in May that violence remains a significant problem, although they acknowledged conditions have improved somewhat. The sheriff has agreed with this assessment, blaming understaffing.
Most of the cases involving 17-year-olds in Orleans, Jefferson and East Baton Rouge parishes are pending, according to court records and officials in those offices. Several defendants have pleaded guilty. Prosecutors have declined to file charges in a handful of cases. Many defendants are first-time offenders who should be eligible for diversion programs in which charges will eventually be dropped if they abide by conditions set by the court, according to officials with the Orleans and Jefferson Parish district attorneys.
None of the DAs in Orleans, Jefferson or East Baton Rouge parishes took a position on the law, according to officials in those offices and news reports. Williams, the Orleans Parish DA, responded to Verite News and ProPublica’s findings by saying his office is holding “violent offenders accountable” while providing alternatives to prison for those teenagers “willing to heed discipline and make a real course correction.”
Margaret Hay, first assistant district attorney with Jefferson Parish, declined to comment on Verite and ProPublica’s findings except to say, “We’re constitutionally mandated to uphold and enforce the laws of the state of Louisiana.” East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore declined to comment.
Having a felony arrest or conviction on your record is like wearing a heavy yoke around your neck.
– Aaron Clark-Rizzio, legal director, Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights
Even those who avoid prison face the long-term consequences of going through the adult court system. Background checks can reveal arrests and convictions, which could prevent them from obtaining a job, housing, professional licenses, loans, government assistance such as student aid or food stamps, or custody of their children.
“Having a felony arrest or conviction on your record,” said Aaron Clark-Rizzio, legal director for the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, “is like wearing a heavy yoke around your neck.”
Marsha Levick, chief legal officer with the Juvenile Law Center, a nonprofit law firm based in Philadelphia, said that what’s happening in Louisiana reminds her of the late 1990s, when states toughened punishments for juveniles after a noted criminologist warned of a generation of “super predators.” That theory was eventually debunked — but not before tens of thousands of children had been locked up and saddled with criminal records.
Mariam Elba contributed reporting and Jeff Frankl contributed research to this article.
Do you have a story to share regarding a 17-year-old facing criminal charges in Louisiana? Contact Richard Webster at [email protected].
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This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
New Orleans area residents and officials on Tuesday made preparations for a potential major rain event, distributing sandbags and warning of localized flooding in the region as a tropical disturbance brewed near Corpus Christi, Texas.
National Hurricane Center forecasters give the storm — which as of Tuesday morning was dubbed Potential Tropical Cyclone One — a 70% chance of developing into a tropical storm in the next two days, possibly as early as Wednesday morning. The storm is “fairly close to transitioning into a tropical depression,” according to Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center.
If it does, it will become Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of this year’s hurricane season.
The worst case, forecasters warned on Tuesday afternoon, is that some areas could see 20 inches of rain through Thursday, though five to ten inches is the more likely forecast in most of the storm’s path. The heaviest rain in Louisiana is expected in a band around the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas, as well as along a swath of the northshore, which are forecast to see more rain than New Orleans. A moderate risk of flash flooding extends in a wide band from Corpus Christi to Atlanta.
Even if this storm doesn’t earn a name, rainfall is expected to be heavy along the Louisiana coast. Residents should expect some coastal and potentially dangerous flash flooding by midweek, forecasters said.
Terrin pellerin, left and Jon Pucheu prepare sand bags at the Eastbank Bridge Park ahead of the gulf disturbance in Destrehan, Tuesday, June 16, 2026.
“Whether or not it becomes a tropical cyclone, the biggest hazard is going to be the rainfall, and potentially flooding along the Gulf Coast,” said Robbie Berg, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “That hazard is going to occur regardless of whether it gets the name.”
It has also already earned the season’s first “cone of uncertainty” forecast track, and it’s aimed at the Louisiana-Texas border. The storm will keep heading northeast, moving offshore and gaining some strength over the Gulf’s hot waters. It will track the Texas coastline northward, increasing in speed gradually over the next few days.
While the storm is expected to bring heavy rain, it isn’t likely to bring especially strong winds to the New Orleans region. A flood watch is in effect for the entire region through Friday morning, with parts of the northshore facing flash flood warnings on Tuesday afternoon. Moderate storm surge of two to four feet is expected from the upper Texas coast to Morgan City.
The tropical storm warning extends from Sabine Pass to Morgan City, but doesn’t include Southeast Louisiana. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the upper Texas coast from Sargent to Sabine Pass.
Still, the weather service warns that “a tornado or two” is possible, anywhere from the upper Texas coast to the Florida Panhandle.
The New Orleans region prepares
Officials across the New Orleans region urged residents to make preparations and mobilized government resources to assist.
Emma Skillbred, a spokesperson at the New Orleans Office of Coordination and Emergency Management, said the city was in close touch with the National Weather Service and other agencies.
Their primary concern is heavy rain and localized flash flooding. They urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel and not to drive through flooded roads.
“Floodwaters are often deeper than they appear, and just a small amount of moving water can carry away a vehicle,” she said.
Sewerage & Water Board General Superintendent Kaitlin Tymrak asked residents to keep an eye on catch basins and sweep away any debris on the street surface to avoid having it run into storm drains. Catch basins clogged by debris can be reported to the city by calling 311.
“We monitor all of the underpass stations. Our crews go out and will typically do a cleaning of each underpass as well,” Tymrak said, describing storm preparations.
S&WB officials say the drainage system is generally able to handle one inch of rain in the first hour of a storm and half an inch thereafter. At least five storms have exceeded those thresholds since December 2023, resulting in widespread street flooding.
“If we were to get three inches in an hour, that would very likely overwhelm parts of our drainage system. We have a very robust system, but it can only handle so much based on its design,” Tymrak said.
Jefferson Parish officials also advised residents to make sure their storm drains are clear, and said that 196 of the parish’s 198 pumps are online. The two that are out of commission are the Harvey pump station and the Pailet pump station, but both have additional pumping capacity.
In St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. Tammany parishes, sandbag distribution was already underway.
Not uncommon
It might feel early to have a storm develop in the Gulf, but Berg with the National Hurricane Center said it’s completely normal.
“We commonly see tropical cyclone development in the Gulf and off the southeast coast of the U.S.,” he said. “It is actually not that abnormal to have a storm form this time of year.”
Since 1950, there have been only four hurricane landfalls along the Gulf Coast in the month of June.
But named tropical storms swirling through the Gulf far before peak hurricane season are much more common. In the last two decades, there have been 16 named storms in the Gulf during the month of June.
Staff writers Ben Myers, Marco Cartolano, Lara Nicholson, Joni Hess, and Justin Mitchell contributed reporting.
This story was orginally published by the Louisiana Illuminator. Editor’s note from the Illuminator: The following commentary was submitted in response to a submission from Chad Hanks, “Farmer finds fears over carbon capture unwarranted,” June 9, 2026.
The recent defense of carbon capture and sequestration presents a familiar narrative: struggling farmers, economic opportunity and a promise that Louisiana’s future depends on embracing this new industry.
It is a compelling story. Unfortunately, it is also incomplete.
No one disputes that farming is difficult. Commodity prices fluctuate. Input costs rise. Families fight every day to hold onto land that’s been in their family for generations. As a Louisiana landowner myself, I understand those pressures.
But the question before Louisiana is not whether farmers deserve opportunities. It’s whether citizens should surrender their property rights, public resources and local control so multinational corporations can bury millions of tons of industrial waste beneath our communities.
Supporters of carbon capture and sequestration often frame opposition as fear, misinformation, or “Facebook rumors.” Yet many of the people asking questions are engineers, geologists, attorneys, landowners, elected officials and citizens who have spent years studying the permits, legislation, regulatory filings and financial incentives driving this industry.
What concerns us is an industrial-scale system that relies on eminent domain, taxpayer subsidies, government mandates, regulatory favoritism and the permanent alteration of Louisiana’s subsurface property rights.
If carbon capture and sequestration is such a profitable and beneficial industry, why does it require billions in federal tax credits? Why does it require state laws granting private corporations the power to expropriate private property? Why does it require immunity protections and limitations on liability? Why does it depend on government intervention at every stage?
The answer is simple: The economics do not work without government assistance and the transfer of risk from corporations to Louisiana citizens.
Supporters frequently compare carbon dioxide pipelines to traditional oil and gas pipelines. That comparison ignores important facts. Oil and gas pipelines transport products with immediate economic value. CO2 pipelines transport waste streams for permanent disposal.
Supporters also compare industrial CO2 pipelines to sparkling water and fire extinguishers. That comparison misses the point. The issue is not the small amounts of carbon dioxide found in consumer products. These projects involve massive volumes of compressed industrial CO₂ transported through high-pressure pipelines and injected underground for permanent storage. Citizens have every right to examine the risks, long-term liability, and emergency response challenges associated with that scale of operation.
The Satartia, Mississippi, pipeline rupture demonstrated how a carbon dioxide release can create a ground-hugging cloud capable of incapacitating an entire community. First responders found themselves unprepared.
This is not fear-mongering. It is documented reality.
Many of the corporations seeking to build carbon storage projects in Louisiana are headquartered outside our state. Investment funds, multinational corporations and consulting firms promoting these projects are largely outside the communities where the pipelines and injection wells will be located.
Meanwhile, many of the citizens raising concerns are Louisiana landowners, farmers, business owners and local residents funding their own efforts, attending meetings on their own time and fighting to protect their property rights and communities.
This is not a battle between Louisiana and outside activists. In many cases, it is Louisiana citizens asking hard questions about projects being advanced by out-of-state corporations, investors and special interests.
What is perhaps most troubling is the coordinated effort underway to manufacture public acceptance.
Across Louisiana, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, industry-funded associations, universities and government agencies have joined together under what has been described as a “whole of Louisiana” approach. Citizens are repeatedly told carbon storage is inevitable, opposition is anti-business, and that Louisiana must choose between CO2 sequestration and economic prosperity.
This is not a grassroots movement. It is a coordinated public relations campaign.
Citizens are rarely told that many of the organizations promoting carbon capture and sequestration stand to benefit from industrial expansion, grants, consulting contracts and economic incentive programs tied directly to these projects.
Chad Hanks’ commentary argues that opposing CCS projects somehow infringes upon a willing landowner’s rights. But what about the neighboring landowner who refuses to participate? What about landowners facing pipeline expropriation? What about future generations who inherit the risks long after today’s executives, politicians and lobbyists have moved on?
Property rights must apply equally to everyone, not just those who sign contracts.
Louisiana’s strength has always been its people, its natural resources and its independent spirit. We should welcome honest economic development. We should encourage manufacturing, innovation and energy production.
But we should never accept the false choice that Louisiana must become the nation’s carbon waste repository in order to survive.
Citizens have every right to ask hard questions before surrendering property rights, public resources and local control to an industry that would not exist without massive government subsidies.
We can support farmers without sacrificing landowners.
We can create jobs without surrendering property rights.
We can pursue economic growth without turning Louisiana into a permanent storage site for the emissions of the world’s largest corporations.
That isn’t anti-business. That’s common sense.
Gary Musgrove is president of Save My Louisiana, a grassroots organization focused on protecting private property rights, landowner interests and Louisiana’s natural resources. He is a lifelong Louisiana resident, landowner, small business owner and retired U.S. Air Force veteran.
Related
Flash flood warning issued for northwest Louisiana
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Flash Flood Warning just after noon on June 15 for northwest Louisiana.
Courtesy of Bob Thames
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Shreveport issued a Flash Flood Warning just after noon Monday, June 15, for northwest Louisiana.
According to the NWS, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain and flash flooding for much of the region. The warning was initially issued until 3 p.m. but was extended until 3:45 p.m.
NWS said this flash flooding could impact small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas.
Shreveport Police Department is reporting that since the rain began this morning, officers have responded to 53 calls for stranded or disabled vehicles and are investigating 24 traffic crashes.
“We are asking motorists to use extreme caution if you must travel,” Shreveport Police Department Public Information Officer Cpl. Chris Bordelon said. “Never attempt to drive through flooded roadways or high water. It only takes a small amount of moving water to sweep a vehicle off the roadway.”
Central parts of Shreveport are being heavily impacted. Shreveport business owner Bob Thames said, “I drove from my office downtown to Marilynn’s Place to check on the building. I had to take several detours. Streets that I’ve never seen flooded before were flooded.”
He continued, “The rapids flowing through Betty Virginia were unlike anything I’ve seen in my time in Shreveport. Bayou Pierre was higher than I’ve ever seen it. I was on the sidewalk warning people not to drive through Fern and Greenway Place.”
Thames stated he witnessed multiple cars get damaged this afternoon.
The Shreveport Police Department is reminding drivers that if you don’t have to be on the roads, stay home until conditions improve.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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