In 2018, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires unanimous jury verdicts in felony cases for crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 2019. Now, the Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the nonunanimity rule—with prosecutors arguing that the U.S. Constitution does not require unanimous jury verdicts in criminal cases.
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. Two Louisiana judges will begin hearing arguments tomorrow about whether a Black judge should be recused from more than 300 criminal cases after she criticized prosecutors for the disproportionate rate of […]
More than three years after heavy rains and flooding devastated the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, officials have reached an agreement to build a new facility.
Neither agency had written policies on how to capture or store the location data without violating privacy rights.
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. This week, the Supreme Court appeared ready to rule against convictions by nonunanimous juries. The Court heard arguments in Ramos v. Louisiana, a case that challenged the […]
Sheriff Sid Gautreaux faces two Democratic challengers in the Oct. 12 election.
A series of victories for advocates reflects a shift in the ‘popular narrative’ around bail.
Derek Harris awaits arguments in the state Supreme Court about the sentencing, which one judge called ‘unconscionable.’
Henri Lyles is challenging his life sentence under a statute that penalizes people for prior convictions. A favorable decision by the state Supreme Court would mean that he and a dozen people sentenced to life could one day be freed.
Jose ‘Lil Joe’ Chapa says one way to make Beauregard Parish ‘great again’ is to stop construction of a new jail and divert resources to services that keep people out of lockup altogether.
Nearly 380 people remain in custody after ICE raids in Mississippi Wednesday. They are likely to be held in immigration detention in Louisiana, far from their families and access to legal counsel.
Gloria Williams was in her 20s when she was sent to prison for her part in a robbery that turned deadly. After serving nearly five decades, including one decade in solitary confinement, Williams now has a chance at freedom.
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. Nearly 20 million people in the United States are estimated to have felony convictions. This makes up approximately 8 percent of all adults and a full third […]
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. This week, The Advocate reported on the case of Gloria Williams, also known as Mama Glo, and her win before the pardon board. Williams has been in […]
James Stewart, Caddo Parish’s DA, continues to defend controversial death sentences that originated with his predecessors.
A lawsuit filed by Kentrell Hurst’s children is the latest against New Orleans Sheriff Marlin Gusman over jail conditions.
‘The bill forces attorneys to choose between violating our ethical mandates or going to jail for following them.’
The bail bonds industry was caught overcharging 50,000 families $6 million over 14 years, according to SPLC.
The Orleans district attorney has said that violent youth are the city’s biggest crime problem.
In 2000, Lamar Burks was convicted of murder and given a 70-year sentence. But the federal indictment of a DEA agent and witnesses who say Burks is innocent have raised new questions about his case.
A judge excluded a confession that exonerated defendants in one trial related to a Delaware prison uprising, but a pair of defendants were nonetheless acquitted, promising further problems for prosecutors.
In 1996, Michele Benjamin was sentenced to life without parole for killing a man who she said solicited her for sex and menaced her with a weapon in New Orleans. A Supreme Court decision led her to be re-sentenced to life with a chance at parole in 2016. Today, a parole hearing brings the possibility of freedom.
With Appeal contributors Clarissa Sosin and Daryl Khan.
Baton Rouge residents say little has changed after Alton Sterling.
Then he ordered another officer to arrest the man.
As in Louisiana, Oregon’s practice is rooted in its own rich history of white supremacy.
With Mercedes Montagnes of the Promise of Justice Initiative.
After the state cut funds for capital defense, there’s a growing wait list of people in jail without a lawyer.
Louisiana is keeping people behind bars long after their sentences have expired, attorneys say.
Attorney General Jeff Landry has taken a number of extreme positions on policing and sentencing in response to reform.
Off-duty law enforcement officers are using state resources to work side jobs for the pipeline company.
Ronald Brooks was helping plan a prison strike when he was abruptly transferred to a new prison hours away.
A new report details the abysmal conditions, lack of medical care, and staff shortages that led to the unusually high death rate in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
The criminal court was funneling millions of dollars a year from poor communities.
Catina Curley suffered physical abuse at the hands of her husband for more than a decade. When she turned a revolver on him, she was charged with murder and sentenced to life. Now, thanks to a court ruling, she has a chance at freedom.
But after a spree of commutations, the governor recently put down his clemency pen amid tough-on-crime fear mongering.
Did a Louisiana police chief and a prosecutor cross a line when they issued televised threats to a man who’d just been granted relief by a federal appeals court in a child killing?
When Caddo voters booted their infamous district attorney, some of his toughest prosecutors found a home in Calcasieu.
Years after two landmark Supreme Court rulings, prosecutors in Louisiana are still overwhelmingly seeking life sentences for children.
People incarcerated at Angola want opportunities for education instead of hard labor in the fields.