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.
Massive alligator causes chaos, attempts to avoid capture
Officers wrangled and released an alligator after it was spotted near a home in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
Louisiana may expand its wild alligator harvesting opportunities to recreational hunters if the Legislature passes a bill that secured unanimous approval in a committee hearing March 11.
Franklin state Sen. Robert Allain’s Senate Bill 244 would authorize the Louisiana Wildlife Commission to create a recreational season that would be open to 5,000 hunters annually, each with a two-gator limit.
The state already has a commercial hunting season for alligators, which is chronicled in the popular “Swamp People” TV reality series.
“We think the time is right,” Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Tyler Bosworth testified during the Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing. “We want to provide a recreational opportunity for the common folk of Louisiana.”
Louisiana’s alligator population has exploded in the past 50 years from fewer than 100,000 to more than 3 million today. Of those, about 2 million are wild with another 1 million farmed.
That’s at least twice the population in Florida, the state with the second most number of alligators.
And their Louisiana numbers have grown throughout the state where they can be commonly spotted from Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge to Caddo and Cross lakes in Shreveport to Caldwell Parish in northeastern Louisiana.
“This is a conservation success story on the highest level,” LDWF general counsel Garrett Cole said during the hearing. “This would create a true recreational opportunity outside our commercial season.”
Garrett said hunters would compete for hunting tags through a lottery will statewide opportunities. Recreational hunters would be limited to hook and line harvesting from land. No gators could be taken by boat as commercial hunters are allowed to do.
If approved, the first season could take place beginning Oct. 1.
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
Responsible Anglers United, LDWF release bass into Lake Bouef
Responsible Anglers United team up with Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to release more than 3,000 Florida bass into Lake Bouef on Oct. 17.
While Louisiana’s largest lake, the Toledo Bend Reservoir, spans 1,200 miles of shoreline, the state’s deepest lake only spans 1,125 acres.
Lake Peigneur is the deepest lake in Louisiana, with a depth measuring approximately 200 feet.
Lake Peigneur is a brackish lake, meaning it contains saltwater but has less salinity than seawater, located in New Iberia Parish in South Louisiana.
How did Lake Peigneur become the deepest lake in Louisiana?
Lake Peigneur was not always considered the deepest lake in Louisiana, as it was only a 10-foot-deep freshwater lake 40 years ago.
On Nov. 20, 1980, an oil rig crew was attempting to free a 14-inch drill bit when they heard popping noises and the rig began to tilt. Shortly after the crew abandoned the rig and headed for shore, the crew watched the 150-foot oil rig disappear into the 10-foot-deep lake.
Soon, a whirlpool formed in place of the oil rig. The whirlpool grew rapidly until it was able to suck up nearby boats, barges, trees, a house and half an island.
At the same location of the oil drilling site, there was also a salt mine, and when the whirlpool formed after the oil rig collapsed, the mine began to fill with water. As the whirlpool grew, water was able to enter the mine at such a force that it caused a geyser to spew out of the mine’s opening for hours until the lake was drained.
After the lake was emptied, the Delcambre Canal began to flow backward, marking the only time in history that the Gulf of Mexico flowed into the continental U.S. This backflow continued until the entire mine and lake were filled with water, except now the lake was filled with saltwater, according to an article published on Louisiana Tech Digital Commons.
Can you swim in Lake Peigneur?
Before the oil rig and salt mine accident, Lake Peigneur was a popular spot for fishing and recreational activities. However, since the lake is almost entirely surrounded by private property, visitors will have to enter the nearby Rip Van Winkle Gardens in order to get a closer look, according to Atlas Obscura.
While there are no reports indicating the lake is unsafe, the lake is not exactly developed for public access. However, there are things to do around Lake Peigneur, like visiting Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island, or visiting Avery Island to tour the Tabasco Factory.
Presley Bo Tyler is a reporter for the Louisiana Deep South Connect Team for USA Today. Find her on X @PresleyTyler02 and email at PTyler@Gannett.com
PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. — A local fisherman raised concerns about the substance now coating Opal Beach, citing a recent oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.
WEAR News went to officials with the Gulf Islands National Seashore and Escambia County to find out the cause.
They say it’s not related to an oil spill, but is in fact algae.
The Marine Resources Division says they can understand beachgoers’ concerns, and hope to raise awareness.
“You don’t even want to get near it because it’s so gooey and sticky,” local fisherman Larry Grossman said. “It was accumulating on my beach cart wheels yesterday, and it felt like an oil product.”
Grossman messaged WEAR News on Monday after noticing something brown and oozy in the sand. He says it started showing up by Fort Pickens and stretched down to Opal Beach.
Grossman said a park service employee told him it could be oil from a recent spill in Louisiana. So he took a message to social media, sparking some reactions and raising questions.
“it certainly didn’t seem like an algae bloom because I was in the water, I caught a fish and I put some water in the cooler to keep my fish cool and it almost looked like oil in it,” Grossman said. “I know some people think it’s an algae bloom, but it certainly smelled and felt and looked like oil.”
A Gulf Islands National Seashore spokesperson confirmed to WEAR News on Tuesday that the substance is algae.
WEAR News crews were at the beach as officials with the Escambia County Marines Resources Division came out take samples.
“What I found here washed up on the beach is some algae — filamentous algae, single celled algae — that washed ashore in some onshore winds,” said Robert Turpin, Escambia County Marines Resources Division manager. “This is the spring season, so with additional sunlight, our plants, they grow in warmer waters, with plenty of sunlight.”
Turpin says this algae is not harmful.
He also addressed the concerns that this could be oil, saying he’s familiar with what oil spills look like.
He says he appreciates when people like Grossman raise the concerns.
“The last thing in the world we want is something to gain traction on social media that is faults in nature that could harm our tourism,” Turpin said. “Our tourism is very important to our economy, and we want to give the right information out to the public so we all enjoy the beaches and enjoy them safely.”
Turpin says if you see something or suspect something may be harmful on the beach, avoid it and contact Escambia County Marine Resources.
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