Louisiana Republicans eliminate elected position days before an exoneree was set to take office

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana Republicans eliminated an elected position days before an exonere who overwhelmingly won the New Orleans-based clerk seat took office.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry quietly signed legislation Thursday abolishing the longtime position of Orleans Parish criminal court clerk, according to Louisiana Secretary of State spokesman Trey Williams.

Republicans say eliminating the office is a consolidation effort intended to make the local justice system more efficient and reduce costs. But Democrats describe the change as government overreach — arguing that it infringes on the electoral decision of a predominantly black parish.

Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly 30 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, easily won the election for criminal court clerk in November, defeating the incumbent and receiving more than two-thirds of the vote. He was scheduled to take office next Monday and asked a federal judge to allow him to take office as planned.

Duncan and Landry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Duncan, a Democrat whose murder conviction was overturned in 2021 after evidence emerged that police officers lied in court, pledged to help fix the system that failed him.

Duncan, 63, and his supporters say he is a target of the state’s most powerful Republicans, including those who have denied his innocence, even though Duncan’s name is on the national registry of exonerations.

“We do something because powerful people don’t like it,” Rep. Mandie Landry, a New Orleans Democrat, told lawmakers at a legislative committee hearing in April. Landry, who is not related to the governor, called the Republican efforts “atrocious” and worries about what it could mean for other elected offices in the state.

Republicans say the legislation consolidates civil and criminal court clerks’ offices in Orleans Parish, bringing it in line with every other parish in the state, which has a single clerk’s office. The civil clerk position would remain and absorb the criminal clerk role.

Eliminating the clerk position would save the state about $27,000 and the city $233,000, according to the legislative auditor’s office, which added that the long-term costs of consolidation are “unknown.” The legislation also shifts about $1.17 million in state spending to the parish. Civil and criminal registries have separate physical offices and different case management systems.

The governor told The Associated Press that eliminating Duncan’s elected position was intended to improve government efficiency and “clean up a system in Orleans Parish that has been plagued by dysfunction and corruption for years.”

The consolidation is part of a broader GOP effort during the current legislative session to overhaul the justice system in New Orleans — including bills proposing to abolish several other elected judicial positions in the parish. However, these jobs would eventually be eliminated, allowing civil servants to complete their terms.

The bill’s Republican author, Sen. Jay Morris, who represents a district a few hours from New Orleans, said the goal was to implement the clerk consolidation before Duncan takes office, thereby preventing him from starting a four-year term. Morris acknowledged that he expects lawsuits will be filed as a result of this law, but he believes the change is constitutional.

“It’s unfortunate for Mr. Duncan, I admit,” Morris told lawmakers in April. “He seems very nice, but we don’t make policy here for one person.”

While the conversations have revolved around Duncan, many are also raising concerns about how the change could potentially disenfranchise voters — a heightened concern in a deeply red state that has led efforts to gut the Voting Rights Act. Orleans Parish is a Democratic hub with a majority black electorate.

“Mr. Duncan was elected by 68 percent of the vote in a majority African-American city. This is the will of the people, and what your bill is trying to do is usurp the will of the people,” Democratic Rep. Edmond Jordan told Morris.

Long before the bill reached the governor’s desk, Duncan said he could see the writing on the wall. Before the result, Duncan’s defenders held a swearing-in ceremony in his honor. Hundreds of people gathered on the steps of the Orleans Parish Criminal Courthouse in support of the exoneree.

Duncan told lawmakers that throughout last year’s election campaign he spoke with many people who told him they generally abstain from voting in elections: “Now this bill tells people exactly what they believed: that their vote doesn’t count.” »

___

Brook reported from New Orleans.