NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The down-ballot race for New Orleans clerk of criminal courts has become personal and contentious. The candidate, who spent 30 years in prison before his conviction was vacated, will face attacks from Louisiana’s attorney general and over whether he really committed the crime.
Duncan, 62, taught law while in prison and struggled for years to access his records. He says that makes his quest to become the city’s leading crime record keeper personal.
“I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else,” said Duncan, whose murder conviction was vacated by a judge in 2021. yousef salaamnow a New York City councilman.
But Duncan’s campaign was overshadowed by a dispute over the word “exoneration” in his case, injecting drama into the otherwise sleepy municipal final stretch. Voters head to the polls on Saturday.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and incumbent Clerk Darren Lombardo deny Duncan’s innocence and point to a 2011 plea agreement for manslaughter and armed robbery that Duncan said he accepted only to secure his release. In television discussions, media interviews, and campaign ads, Lombard has called Duncan a murderer.
Duncan, a Democrat, accuses his opponents of trying to mislead voters. Duncan supporters say it’s an example of New Orleans’ bare-knuckle politics. There, more than 10 candidates are running to replace Mayor Tagere Cantrell. pleaded not guilty He was charged with corruption in September.
Jessica Paredes, executive director of The Exoneration Registry, said Duncan’s case definitely deserves to be listed among the more than 3,700 exonerations tracked since 1989.
“Maintaining database integrity errs modestly,” she said. “Calvin’s exoneration was not one of these close calls. His case clearly meets our selection criteria.”
Guilty pleas and invalid convictions
Before being released from prison, Duncan presented new evidence of his innocence in a fatal 1981 shooting in which police officers lied in court. A judge later vacated Duncan’s conviction under the legal statute of “factual innocence” and prosecutors dismissed the charges.
Legal scholars say there is no blanket legal standard for exoneration, but Paredes’ group generally defines it as “when a person convicted of a crime is officially cleared after new evidence of innocence becomes available.”
Even before Duncan took office, his case drew scrutiny from Maliru, the state’s Republican attorney general. According to Duncan’s attorney, Jacob Weichler, after Duncan earned his law degree in 2023 and tried to win $330,000 in state compensation for wrongful conviction, Malile threatened to challenge his ability to practice law unless he dropped his claim for the money.
Murrill spokesman Lester Duhe confirmed the account and said Duncan “pleaded guilty in court to this charge of willful and intentional manslaughter.” Duncan withdrew his claims to avoid impediment to the practice of law, Weichler said.
Less than two weeks before the election, Murrill escalated the dispute, accusing Duncan of calling him exonerated himself. On Monday, dozens of Louisiana attorneys signed a letter rejecting her claims.
self-taught lawyer
In the legal community, Duncan had already achieved a degree of celebrity before taking office.
He recalls in his memoirs how an elderly prisoner advised him to study law to save himself. Duncan had only an eighth grade education, so he was allowed to hone his legal skills and help other inmates prepare court documents as part of the prison’s legal program.
His persistence ultimately shaped the nation’s law. Duncan was the driving force behind the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended Nonsensical Jury Conviction Louisiana and Oregon are the only two states that allow practices rooted in the Jim Crow era, said G. Ben Cohen, the attorney in the case.
Duncan said obtaining a police report, let alone a court transcript, could take years for an inmate. New Orleans’ criminal court system remains heavily tilted toward paper records, and thousands of files were lost during Hurricane Katrina. In August, most of the criminal court records were accidentally thrown away and left in the clerk’s office. save them from landfill.
Lombard said a new digital filing system will come online this year. He calls his opponent unqualified, and Duncan argues that he brings a unique appreciation for the weight of office.
“I have seen and experienced firsthand when the clerk’s office does not function properly,” he said.
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Associated Press journalist Stephen Smith contributed to this report. Brooke is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report American State University News Initiative. american report A nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.
