Louisiana
Louisiana legislators grill New Orleans DA for releasing people convicted of violent crimes
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana legislators interrogated New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams over reform policies that have allowed several hundred people to have their convictions voided or sentences reduced in the past few years, during a fiery Senate hearing Thursday at the state capitol.
Conservative lawmakers, Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill and several former prosecutors said Williams failed to fulfill his duty to defend convictions for violent crimes. They highlighted cases of convicted murderers and rapists released from prison through post-conviction relief, which allows new information to be considered after all appeals have been exhausted.
Williams, a Democrat who took office in 2020 on a progressive platform, defended his record and said his office is seeking to restore trust in the legal system. He has pushed for expanding the use of post-conviction relief to review cases where his office believes unconstitutional or unjust procedures were employed to reach convictions.
Murrill said she is reviewing what she called the “disproportionately higher number” of relief cases awarded by Williams’ office since January. He has granted relief in around 40 cases during that period, while district attorneys in neighboring Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes have only allowed for one case of relief each.
In almost every case granted by Williams’ office, the person had not asserted their innocence as a reason for relief, she said. District attorneys have an obligation to fight to uphold convictions, Murrill added.
Williams and his supporters have pointed to New Orleans’ history of police and prosecutorial misconduct and harsh sentencing policies as a reason for the elevated number of cases.
“The job is to enforce the law and not make the law,” Murrill said. “If the district attorney had a disagreement regarding policy, that’s not a basis for relief.”
Under a new law that took effect in August, Williams’ office is required to notify the attorney general of post-conviction relief cases and allow her to intervene.
Murrill and conservative lawmakers said the hearing was part of a process to assess whether Williams had committed overreach. They would consider additional legislative responses to his office’s actions in the future. Across the country, conservative legislators have sought to limit the independence of progressive prosecutors, according to University of Berkeley law professor Rebecca Goldstein.
State Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents New Orleans, said that Williams reflected the values and policies of voters who elected him to office and questioned the political motives behind the hearing.
Laura Rodrigue, a former New Orleans prosecutor and daughter of Williams’ predecessor, highlighted what she said was a flurry of instances where post-conviction relief was granted despite there being “no legal basis” for relief.
She raised the case of Eric Matthews, who beat his two-year-old to death with a belt in 1994 and had his conviction voided earlier this year on the grounds that his lawyer was ineffective. While Williams’ office said they opposed releasing Matthews and plan for a retrial, Matthews is currently out on bond.
“Finding some loophole to let someone out on, none of us should support that because it is evil, it is wicked,” Republican state Sen. Valarie Hodges said.
Republican state Sen. Jay Morris brought up the case of another man who stabbed his female partner to death and was later re-sentenced and released after Williams’ office conceded the ineffective counsel claims presented by the man’s attorney.
“Do you have a concern that that person who brutally murdered his ex-wife (is) being set free?” Morris asked Williams.
Williams said he did. But he explained there were other potential constitutional violations raised in the case and that acknowledging them could have “exposed my office to a lawsuit.”
He said his office had sought maintain a conviction and had shared statements from the victim’s family to the judge opposing the release.
Williams said he believed much of the testimony presented at the hearing was misleading and unfairly maligned the post-conviction relief process. He said his office was motivated to let people have a chance to bring new evidence into court, pointing to a case where one alleged victim recently admitted that he had falsely accused a man serving decades behind bars for armed robbery.
Some lawmakers accused Williams of operating without transparency over his decision-making in cases where relief was granted. His office has withheld documents from the public related to these cases on the grounds they are protected “work product,” the Advocate has reported.
Williams said his office plans to provide lawmakers and the attorney general with complete records for each case of post-conviction relief over the past year.
“We have nothing to hide,” he said.
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The Louisiana Legislative Auditor released a report on December 16 focused on the seclusion, restraint, and abuse of special education students in public schools. This is the third audit from the LLA in the last two years as it has looked into the complaint process and monitoring of special education services in previous reports.
This stems from a nationwide report released in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights. That report found that students in special education classes make up 14% of the total K-12 enrollment, but account for 81% of physically restrained students, and 75% of students secluded.
According to Gina Brown, the audit manager for the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, nobody is monitoring the use of seclusion and restraint across the public school systems in Louisiana.
“It’s not required anywhere to be monitored and so it’s not being monitored. LDOE it is our opinion that LDOE does have the authority to monitor this,” Brown says.
The Louisiana Department of Education responded to the audit, saying it “disagrees with the LLA’s contention that LDOE has the necessary authority to monitor how school systems use seclusion and restraint.”
Brown says in Louisiana, school systems are required to report the number of incidents where students are physically restrained or secluded. She says the data is collected but not really used for anything.
“We found after going into field work and interviewing teachers and talking to those different school districts, we found a discrepancy between what was being reported to the department. Compared to the number of instances that were actually happening at the school,” Brown says.
Back in 2022, the Louisiana Legislature approved $8.8 million for the department of education to give to schools to install cameras in special education classrooms. The funding went into effect in 2023, but so far only $2.2 million has been spent. Brown says that is most likely because parents are unaware that they have to actually request cameras be put into those classrooms for the school to then require it.
“If parents were more informed that they can request this form, they can request a camera, they may be more likely. We might see more of this funding being used,” Brown says.
According to Ted Beasley, the communications director for the Louisiana Department of Education, there have been a total of 181 requests for cameras and 988 cameras installed. Some schools did it proactively.
Another potential problem the audit highlights is the requirements around certifications for teachers. Public school teachers are required to be certified, but they are not required to be certified in charter schools. Brown also says Louisiana is the only state with no code of ethics out of the 10 states they surveyed. Louisiana also does not have a way to sanction the licenses of teachers accused of mistreating students but not convicted of a crime.
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Louisiana will hold a special election Feb. 15 for open state Senate seats in Baton Rouge and Lafayette.
A runoff, if needed, will be held March 29, on the same ballot as Gov. Jeff Landry’s proposed tax and criminal justice state constitutional amendments.
Sens. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and Jean-Paul Coussan, R-Lafayette, are leaving the Louisiana Legislature to take their new positions in Congress and on the Public Service Commission, respectively. Their resignations will leave Senate districts 14 and 23 open.
The candidate qualifying period for both Senate seats will take place Jan. 7-9.
State Rep. Larry Selders, R-Baton Rouge, and former state school board member Carolyn Hill, D-Baton Rouge, have both said they will run to replace Fields. State Rep. Brach Myers, R-Lafayette, and Broussard Councilman Jesse Regan, also a Republican, have said they will run to replace Coussan.
NY officials call for federal action on mysterious drone sightings
After a series of reported drone sightings in the Northeast, New York officials called for federal action.
Recently, there have been sightings of unidentified drones flying above New York, New Jersey and other Northern states.
In Louisiana, there haven’t been many drone sightings, except for one drone that was spotted flying in Mandeville in the southern part of the state.
Drone sightings in the U.S.
The flying of personal drones is a hobby many individuals take part in, however, after recent drone sightings, people are becoming suspicious of these drones.
After concerns increased regarding the drones flying in the northeastern part of the country, law enforcement conveyed that the drones do not appear to be a threat to public safety. However, lawmakers have in turn called for more restrictions on who should be allowed to fly drones.
In addition to this, the FBI and other agencies have begun investigating these drones, and have asked individuals to share videos, photos and other information about the drones.
While the drone situation is still being investigated, officials from the FBI and other agencies have released reports assuring citizens that the drones do not pose a threat to public safety or national security, and that the drones are not the handiwork of a malicious foreign body.
Can you shoot down a drone in Louisiana?
Say you spot one of these unidentified drones flying over your property in Louisiana, would you be allowed, under state law, to shoot it down?
Under federal law, it is illegal to shoot down an aircraft, even if it’s unmanned. The Federal Aviation Administration says that shooting an unmanned aircraft could result in a civil penalty from the FAA and/or criminal charges from federal, state or local law enforcement.
Federal law also says that anyone who damages, destroys, disables or wrecks any kind of aircraft in U.S. airspace will be subjected to fines or be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Also, individuals who attempt to fire at a drone could potentially face charges for reckless endangerment and criminal mischief if a lawfully operated aircraft is damaged.
In relation to this, the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to deal with unmanned aircrafts through the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018.
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