Calvin Duncan started learning the law as a matter of necessity, he said. He was serving a life sentence for murder and wanted to prove his innocence.<\/p>\n
He not only regained his freedom, but helped many other incarcerated people do the same. He graduated from law school at age 60. And last November, he was elected to the job of criminal court clerk in New Orleans, ousting an incumbent after drawing an unusual level of attention to a race that rarely attracts any.<\/p>\n
But Mr. Duncan may never get to serve. State lawmakers in Louisiana are racing to abolish the office altogether before he assumes it on May 4.<\/p>\n
Republican officials in Louisiana want to eliminate the criminal court clerk job as part of a more sweeping effort to reshape the judicial system in New Orleans, which detractors have long derided as costly and inefficient. The plan, they say, would save money by cutting judges and consolidating court functions.<\/p>\n
But while Republicans have talked in the past about combining the city\u2019s criminal and civil courts, it became a priority only after Mr. Duncan was elected.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, the criminal court clerk\u2019s responsibilities \u2014 including maintaining an ever-expanding trove of case records and evidence, as well as running elections \u2014 would be reassigned to the city\u2019s elected civil clerk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could be a proud moment for the whole state \u2014 a person pulling himself up,\u201d Mr. Duncan, now 63, said in a recent interview, expressing his frustration.<\/p>\n
Some critics have cast the legislation as another injustice inflicted by the state upon Mr. Duncan, who served 28 years in prison before securing his freedom in 2011. Mr. Duncan, who is Black, described the move as reminiscent of Reconstruction-era tactics employed by white Southern leaders to block Black candidates from elected office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe will of the people should be honored,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Opponents of the proposal have also condemned it as another example of Louisiana\u2019s Republican leaders \u2014 namely, Gov. Jeff Landry \u2014 exerting their will over the defiantly left-leaning city of New Orleans. It is a recurring tug of war that has flared up over abortion access, homelessness and crime in the French Quarter.<\/p>\n
The bill\u2019s supporters denied being motivated by animus toward Mr. Duncan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t blame him for not liking it and it seems like he\u2019s done some remarkable things since he\u2019s gotten out of jail,\u201d said Jay Morris, the Republican state senator from northern Louisiana who sponsored the bill. \u201cI don\u2019t know whether he would have been a good clerk or not, but it\u2019s just more about right-sizing and is something that should have been done along time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
An estimate by the nonpartisan legislative auditor found that merging the criminal and civil clerks\u2019 offices in New Orleans would save the state just $37,300 per year. Mr. Morris said the civil clerk\u2019s office \u2014 which maintains deeds and mortgage records \u2014 generates considerable revenue, while the criminal clerk\u2019s office does not.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers are rushing to get the legislation to Mr. Landry before Mr. Duncan takes office on May 4. Versions of the bill have been approved along party lines by the House and the Senate, and it has the governor\u2019s support.<\/p>\n
Mr. Duncan, in seeking the criminal clerk\u2019s office, also argued that it was inefficient, disorganized and outdated.<\/p>\n
But rather than slashing it, Mr. Duncan campaigned on investing in digitizing records and improving access. He said that he knew from experience the value of case records and evidence in clearing wrongful convictions and achieving justice. He also knew the devastating consequences when the clerk\u2019s office fails to carefully maintain those records.<\/p>\n
Mr. Duncan\u2019s run began as a long shot. He was challenging an incumbent from a prominent political family, who had endorsements from the city\u2019s newly elected mayor and the editorial page of The Times-Picayune, the city\u2019s principal news outlet.<\/p>\n
But his campaign picked up steam after the incumbent, Darren Lombard, started publicly claiming last year that Mr. Duncan had never been cleared in the murder in 1981 that had sent him to prison. Mr. Lombard cited a letter from the state\u2019s Republican attorney general, Liz Murrill, arguing that Mr. Duncan was not really exonerated because he had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge to secure his release from prison.<\/p>\n
But a judge found Mr. Duncan factually innocent long before his campaign. He was also added to the National Registry of Exonerations, having met the standards of the independent clearinghouse maintained by scholars.<\/p>\n
In a city with one of the nation\u2019s highest rates of known wrongful convictions, the attempts to discredit Mr. Duncan only galvanized support for his campaign. He forced Mr. Lombard into a runoff, which he won with 68 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n
Mr. Duncan has found this new fight \u2014 and the difficult odds of winning it \u2014 disheartening in part because of the message it sends to voters whose trust he won.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to convince a lot of people to start believing in this system again, and I had to convince them that our votes do count,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now, it\u2019s like your vote don\u2019t count.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calvin Duncan started learning the law as a matter of necessity, he said. He was serving a life…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12192,12189,3832,12191,12188,8,12190,12193,9,7,11259],"class_list":{"0":"post-20121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-calvin-1963","9":"tag-convictions-and-imprisonments","10":"tag-courts-and-the-judiciary","11":"tag-duncan","12":"tag-false-arrests","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-layoffs-and-job-reductions","15":"tag-new-orleans-la","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116457701516055643","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}