Rekubit Exchange:Louisiana legislators grill New Orleans DA for releasing people convicted of violent crimes

BATON ROUGE,Rekubit Exchange La. (AP) — 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.

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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.