Louisiana's Wrongful Conviction Problem - Attention Essence Festival Attendees

As tourist flock to the Essence Festival what they more than likely don't know is, Louisiana has a huge issue with wrongful convictions that later result in exonerations where State Prosecutors withheld material exculpatory evidence from the defense and jury. 

A book/audiobook titled Killing Time by John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier should be something that's put in gift bags for all Essence Festival attendees, in hopes they'll be better informed about how innocent black men ( usually poor and uneducated ) have been victims of The State System that fails to hold those State Prosecutors accountable in the most fitting way. 


 Let's get in some Good Trouble and change The System. There is a remedy. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:19

It is clear to me that Adams did not receive a fair trial, and that if his attorneys had been in possession of this information three decades ago, he would have likely been acquitted.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

When I look at the news coverage of these cases, these individuals who were wrongfully convicted and those that were later exonerated, found by the court to have been innocent of the charges, I find that there are some similarities in these cases. That is that nobody was watching the behaviors of the prosecutors in the cases and or the officers in the cases.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

Chairman Muscarello. You have three bills, sir. You wanna you wanna take up one-on-one first? Okay. And we have Attorney General Liz Mural present. Good morning, Attorney General. Mr. Stormont, you want to go ahead and read the instrument to the record, please?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Members, this is House Bill 101 by Chairman Muscarello. Provides relative to compensation for wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

Chairman Muscarello on you, Bill.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Madam Chair, members, thank you for hearing this bill today. We're presenting to uh House Bill 101. I do have Attorney General Liz Morrell who will kind of brief you on the bill.

SPEAKER_06 2:04

So thank you, uh Representative Muscarello, for carrying this bill, and Madam Chairman and members of the committee. Um, this bill is simply the amendments to this bill, um, to this existing law regarding wrongful conviction compensation are intended to align the compensation statute with the the Civil Rights Act, which would allow an action to be brought against the particular individuals who may be responsible for the original conviction or the claims of wrongdoing related to the original conviction. Right now, that section 1983 claim under the Civil Rights Act would be against those individuals. This statute allows the cause of action against the state of Louisiana. It requires the attorney general to defend it, but I'm having to defend cases that I had nothing to do with. Um I know I cannot address the original activities that occurred from the conviction even forward through post-conviction relief. We're gonna have a discussion this morning about post-conviction relief as well. Um, but this particular statute imposes a duty now upon under its current form, it imposes a duty on the attorney general to defend convictions that I, the attorney general, whether it's me or any other attorney general, had no role in obtaining and had no role in the possible post-conviction relief to reverse that conviction later. Um, and so the financial responsibility for that conviction should reside with the parties or the parish, where that elected official or those particular officials, if it's the police or the DA or the sheriff, it doesn't matter. Those are local officials, and the financial responsibility should reside there. That's where it would reside under section 1983. This shifts that and aligns it with the Civil Rights Act where um where it would be the same. And so that's our main objective. We currently have a number of these cases pending because of Orleans Parish's uh movement to change and and convert a lot of convictions. And we've had discussions about that. I've reviewed a number of those convictions. I believe that that relief was not appropriate, but I had no ability to come in and intervene because I didn't know that it was being sought or being granted. And now the state, so that means taxpayers from Monroe are having to pay for the conduct or the decisions of a district attorney in Orleans. Um, I think that this ought to align the financial responsibility with the parish officials who make the decisions uh that are that create the underlying conduct that is being complained about. So that's what the amendments do. Um, and I I think that it's fairly simple.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

Um Mr. Stormont, did we have um a motion to adopt the amendments? There are no amendments yet. Okay. Okay, she was explaining. All right. Um, Mr. Stormont, do you have some amendments that you need to read into the record? Okay, so that's the substitute bill you're talking about. Okay. Um Attorney General Mural, could you, I don't see any questions on the board right now. Um, could you talk a little bit about Section 1983 and the remedies available to these particular individuals under Section 1983 as opposed to the state statute?

SPEAKER_06 5:33

So Section 1983 is a federal law that provides for a civil rights action, a cause of action for someone if their civil rights have been denied. Um, it is different from this statute. It uh it would require the individual to establish that their civil rights were in fact denied. Um, getting of having a wrongful conviction wouldn't necessarily establish that their civil rights were denied. They still may have been given what would have been considered a fair trial. Um, evidence may come up later that exonerates someone and it simply wasn't available or the technology wasn't available at the time. So um those can conditions can occur. And in a civil rights action, there are defenses the state could raise that we don't have under this statute. So I still think that the Civil Rights Act cause of action, it can be brought in state or federal court. It is a federal law, but they are no one's prohibited from bringing that claim in state court. Um state judges can entertain that action as well.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

So wouldn't it in fact um cure the the problem that you're finding in that any nefarious actor, a bad actor, be it law enforcement or a district attorney who may have, let's say, withheld evidence. Yes, then they they could be found to be the the responsible, liable party under Section 1983 Act, and under Section 1983, correct me if I'm wrong, not only are monetary damages available, but also attorney's fees to the prevailing party. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_06 7:06

That's correct.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Thank you. Um I see Representative LaFleur um in the queue, Representative LaFleur. Thank you, Madam Chair.

SPEAKER_05 7:14

Um to be clear, the wrongful conviction compensation fund, we are doing away with that with HB 101.

SPEAKER_06 7:25

Well, if you shifted the liability to the parishes to align it with section 1983, where the liability would lie under that cause of action, then you would no longer need to appropriate that money to the fund. Um that's that's just a consequence of shifting responsibility to the local governments.

SPEAKER_05 7:46

That means the local government would then be responsible.

SPEAKER_06 7:49

They would, but they're responsible for the conduct. So, you know, I mean, you're you're you are now basically using taxpayer dollars that are and funding it from taxpayers in North Louisiana or wherever that, you know, were not responsible for the conduct. So the section 1983, the lawsuit would be against the officials who are claimed to have had a role in the conduct. Um, this statute provides for a cause of action against the state, and the attorney general is required under this statute currently to defend it. Um, my hands are tied frequently depending on what happened below. So, in the Orleans Parish example, there's over 300 cases where the Orleans Parish District Attorney came in and basically granted post-conviction relief. I had no notice of it. I had no ability to intervene, nor did the prior attorney general when that began. Um, it has resulted in a much higher volume of cases. In the past, I think that we have paid out verdicts. Um, we have paid out on this under this statute in a very small number of cases, only in only from that only affected five parishes. Um, so the majority of parishes have never had to pay a judgment related to the wrongful conviction statute. Um Orleans, right now, I think we have over 20 cases pending, and that is, in my opinion, not because they have necessarily valid cases under the to to make those claims, but it's because of the high volume of relief that was granted by the district attorney, and now they have that has prompted more lawsuits under this statute, and we will have to litigate them to determine whether or not they can reach their burden of proof because the statute itself was really designed for people who can prove that they were actually innocent, not just had a conviction reversed for some error of law.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

The bill did not pass. It sounds pretty offensive that the state would be suggesting that the wrongfully convicted pursue a remedy that uh is more difficult for them to get paid after they were wrongfully convicted and later exonerated. This particular individual, Reginald Adams, he was not released based on a technicality. In March of 2015, the Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said that it found in its own investigation that Adams was factually innocent and that Adams received $480,000 in state compensation. So the state rep is trying to introduce and get passed new legislation that they pursue compensation in another way. Alright, so take a listen to the rest of this. Just to be clear, the prosecutor that you all see in the news clip, his name is Leon Canziaro, C-A-N-N-I-Z-Z-A-R-O. He was not the prosecutor that was in office at the time of Reginald Adams' prosecution. So here's a quote from Kenziaro. Um he says, quote, I will not tolerate intentional misconduct on the part of police or prosecutors, end quote. He further said in a statement that apologized to Adams for an unfair trial and unjust conviction. He said prosecutors' handling of the case was shameful. Not only did their intentional acts, key word you guys, intentional, not only did their intentional acts harm Reginald Adams, who was wrongfully incarcerated for more than three decades, it also denied the community any opportunity to hold the real perpetrator criminally responsible for this violent crime. And that's a quote from information on the National Registry of Exonerations website. They track all these wrongful convictions that later result in exonerations. So I'm going to be sharing additional information with you all about one of the prosecutors in this case, and I think that might help you understand why that state rep is saying go to that jurisdiction and get the money you are due. But I'll share that in another episode. At any rate, I hope this case will cause you to take measure of just how far we've come when it comes to uh criminal justice reform. And um, you know, reconsider how much time and effort you want to give to turn this around because I can tell you there is a remedy for the public to turn this around, which is why that state rep is saying go to that jurisdiction. There's a remedy, the remedy has been there for years. I have no idea why the public has not demanded that it be pursued. All right, so be sure you click the like button, click the subscribe button. When you click the subscribe button, click on all, and I will catch you on the next go around.