Louisiana
Parole committee for people convicted by nonunanimous juries advances
Incarcerated people with nonunanimous jury convictions would be able to send an application for parole to the committee within its first year.
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BATON ROUGE — A bill that would allow a committee to recommend parole to incarcerated Louisiana residents who received convictions through nonunanimous jury verdicts advanced 4-3 along party lines in a Senate judiciary committee.
Senate Bill 215 would allow the Department of Public Safety and Corrections to create a committee to review the appeal records of cases with nonunanimous convictions.
Incarcerated people with nonunanimous jury convictions would be able to send an application for parole to the committee within its first year. The committee would end after three years.
Democrats and advocacy groups opposed the bill, saying it did not go far enough to correct the problems.
The bill is meant to address possibly unjust convictions that are no longer legal in Louisiana after a constitutional amendment requiring unanimous verdicts passed in 2018.
The original law, allowing for convictions on as little as a 9-3 vote, was part of the 1898 constitutional convention, and it was designed to dilute Black jurors’ votes.
Louisiana changed the requirement to a 10-2 vote during the 1973 constitutional convention. Oregon, the only other state that allowed nonunanimous juries, had the same requirement.
Under the new bill, clerks of court would provide applicants with their records free of charge, and district attorneys and victims could respond at hearings.
Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Mandeville, who wrote the bill, said the legislation was a compromise between district attorneys who believed in the validity of convictions and criminal justice advocates.
“There’s likely not a way that either of those groups can come to a full consensus, but I think it was important to have the discussions and to continue to have the discussions,” McMath said.
Bradley R. Burget, president of the Louisiana District Attorney’s Association, supported the bill.
“We’re not exactly happy with it,” Burget said. “There’s a lot of the members of the DA’s association that may not be 100% for this, but I think this is something that they can live with.”
Zachary Daniels, the association’s executive director, liked the bill’s provision giving the committee authority to determine which nonunanimous convictions are just since “many of these contain strong evidence and are valid convictions where the prosecutor played by the rules at the time.”
Before the legislative session, the association found at least 1,215 cases a committee could analyze.
Daniels said it would be impossible to retry all of these cases because witnesses, officers and victims may no longer be available, and evidence may no longer exist.
The extensive list of issues the committee could consider includes the length of jury deliberations, the strength of the state’s case, the effectiveness of the defense attorney and evidence of racism.
Former Rep. Randal Gaines, who is now chair of the Democratic Party of Louisiana, filed a similar bill in 2022 that included the same list of issues that could be reviewed.
Herman Evans, who spent 37 years in prison after a nonunanimous jury convicted him in 1989 for a second-degree murder he did not commit, opposed the bill. Even after the perpetrator confessed in 2012, Evans did not get a hearing until 2024.
“That bill ain’t going to do nothing,” Evan said. “They’ve got the parole board. They’ve got the clemency board. It’s about the same board. And it costs about the same if you bring them back and let them get denied.”
Daniels said the expected cost to implement the bill is $1.8 million, based on a study resolution written for the 2025 legislative session by Sen. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine.
Owen also filed House Bill 219 that would allow courts to have resentencing hearings for nonunanimous convictions. The House Committee on Administration has not heard the bill yet.
One issue that arose in the meeting was the governor’s impact on the committee.
The governor would appoint to the committee three retired appellate court judges or Louisiana Supreme Court justices, one retired district attorney or assistant district attorney and one retired public defender.
The district attorney and public defender appointees would come from a list of three nominations from the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the state public defender.
Although all five members would need to agree that a conviction was unfair, the current bill would allow the governor to make final decisions on releasing applicants.
The current bill does not provide details on the governor’s power. Daniels said the bill would eventually include that language after input from attorneys from the governor’s office.
Daniels also noted that there may be some conflict between the committee’s final decision and Gov. Jeff Landry’s tough-on-crime approach.
Sarah Gozalo of the Promise of Justice Initiative expressed concerns about the governor’s ultimate power.
“If we find that miscarriage of justice, the solution is, we will ask the governor — the one person who, in 2018, opposed getting rid of nonunanimous jurors,” Gozalo said.
Other opponents of the bill suggested keeping the bill in committee until it was amended to address their concerns.
Bruce Reilly, deputy director of Voice of the Experienced, and Erica Navalance, a criminal defense attorney, recommended adding post-conviction evidence to the records the committee sees to prove claims of ineffective defense counsel or prosecutorial misconduct.
McMath declined to defer the bill.
“I think that holding it up in this committee doesn’t necessarily give the chance to continue to move on through the process, where we all know that things sometimes can change and get new input,” McMath said.
Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, who had a similar bill in 2025 that did not pass, objected to the bill’s advancement.
“Just know that this is not an easy objection for me,” Duplessis said. “And if this bill does advance, I want to continue, or at least I want to work with you, to try to find a solution, because it’s been stated repeatedly, we’re not quite there.”
MONROE, La. (KNOE) – The North Louisiana Crime Lab released a June 2026 law enforcement bulletin warning of additional cases tied to cyclorphine, a synthetic opioid the lab says can be significantly more potent than fentanyl.
The bulletin, titled “Cyclorphine Update — Additional Cases & Footprint,” notes that drug evidence submissions testing positive for cyclorphine have been received from multiple parishes in North Louisiana.
What is cyclorphine?
According to the bulletin, cyclorphine is a synthetic opioid in the emerging orphine drug class. The lab said current toxicity data are limited, but laboratory studies indicate cyclorphine may be up to 10 times more potent than fentanyl.
Reported effects
The crime lab said cyclorphine can produce effects similar to other narcotic analgesics, including:
- Central nervous system depression
- Lethargy or stupor
- Respiratory depression with slow, shallow breathing
- Pinpoint pupils
The bulletin said Narcan should be administered to someone suffering from cyclorphine toxicity, and that multiple doses may be needed.
What the bulletin says about trends
The crime lab said national data indicate cyclorphine will likely continue spreading through the region, including becoming more common in seized and submitted drug evidence.
Where cyclorphine has been detected
The bulletin includes a “detection timeline and counterfeit tablet types,” showing evidence submissions tied to specific parishes and dates, including:
- Caddo Parish (Feb. 19; April 14)
- Ouachita Parish (March 18; May 13)
- DeSoto Parish (March 25)
- Natchitoches Parish (May 14)
The lab also noted counterfeit pill types associated with these submissions, including tablets labeled “M30,” “M15,” “K56,” “1259,” and “M367.” Officials warned it may be impossible to know what a pill contains, even if it resembles a known tablet.
The North Louisiana Crime Lab said it will continue tracking trends and sharing updates as additional evidence is submitted.
Copyright 2026 KNOE. All rights reserved.
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NEW ORLEANS — The rapper Mystikal, who received multiple Grammy nominations in the early 2000s, will serve 20 years in prison for raping a woman at his Louisiana home in 2022.
Mystikal, whose given name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in March with a sentencing cap of 20 years, five years less than the maximum punishment for the crime. His plea deal reduced the charge from first-degree rape, which carries an automatic life sentence.
Days before his Tuesday sentencing hearing, he asked a judge to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he “did not have sufficient opportunity to fully consider the consequences,” according to ABC affiliate WBRZ.
The victim spoke in court before sentencing and asked the judge to give Mystikal the maximum sentence, WBRZ reported. She reportedly said the rapper had punched her, choked her, pulled out her braids and forcibly raped her at his home in Prairieville, about 18 miles from Baton Rouge.
“If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” he said in response, according to the local TV station.
A lawyer for the rapper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mystikal has been held without bond at the Ascension Parish Jail since his arrest in 2022.
The Louisiana rapper rose to national recognition in the 1990s and is known for his 2000 hit “Shake Ya A–,” which was nominated for a Grammy in the best rap solo performance category.
In 2003, he pleaded guilty to sexual battery and was sentenced to six years in prison. That same year, he was a Grammy nominee in two categories: best rap album for “Tarantula” and best male rap solo performance for his single “Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against the Wall).”
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