Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and the GOP-controlled Legislature are racing to eliminate the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court job won by Calvin Duncan, an exonerated man whose swearing-in is scheduled for May 4, according to a report by The Associated Press.
Duncan won the office last November with 68% of the vote after pledging to pursue reforms grounded in his experience after his wrongful conviction, including his efforts to gain access to court records while he was imprisoned. As state lawmakers moved, Duncan said the push is retaliatory—focusing on officials who long disputed his innocence even after he was listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.
On Wednesday, Louisiana Senate Republicans voted to scrap Duncan’s new job as part of a broader Republican effort to streamline the judiciary in New Orleans, a Democratic hub with a predominantly Black electorate. The AP report said the state Legislature is largely Republican and white, and that Louisiana has been pursuing efforts to gut the Voting Rights Act.
Duncan told lawmakers during a March committee hearing that the bill would effectively void the election result. He said, “The citizens of New Orleans overwhelmingly said: ‘I want to give this person a chance, he can make a difference,’” and added, “What this bill does, it says: ‘Thank you but you wasted your time.’ It disenfranchises everybody.”
The dispute also draws on Duncan’s long road out of prison. The case began with the 1981 murder of David Yeager, and Duncan was imprisoned for more than 28 years before prosecutors later offered a deal in 2011 that would reduce his sentence if he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery. Duncan was freed after that deal, but a judge later vacated his sentence altogether in 2021 after agreeing he had been unjustly convicted.
Landry, now Louisiana’s governor, opposed Duncan’s 2023 petition seeking compensation for the wrongful conviction, according to the report. Duncan withdrew the petition after Landry’s successor, Liz Murrill, threatened to seek action against Duncan’s law license, and Duncan later said Murrill had vowed to take “further action” if he continued to describe himself as “exonerated.”
Duncan said in a statement to the AP that the threat of consequences extended into his election campaign. He told the outlet that Louisiana Attorney General officials made clear during the election that if he continued “to accurately speak about my innocence and exoneration,” he would face consequences, and he said that is reflected in the current move. Murrill, the report said, said she had “no involvement” in the elimination effort.
Republicans backing the effort argue it is not personal. Landry told the AP that eliminating Duncan’s elected office is about improving “government efficiency” and “cleaning up a system in Orleans Parish that has been plagued by dysfunction and corruption for years.”
Supporters of consolidating the criminal clerk of court with the civil clerk of court have argued that those offices are combined in other parishes. The report said terminating the criminal clerk of court position would save the state an estimated $27,300, according to the office of the legislative auditor, which added that costs of combining the clerks’ offices were “unknown.”
The bill’s Republican author, Sen. Jay Morris, acknowledged that ending the criminal clerk post could leave the civil clerk handling an influx of cases. He said the response would be to “hire someone.” Morris also told lawmakers the plan is to pass the law in time to prevent Duncan from taking office before the start of his four-year term.
On the Senate floor, Democrat Sen. Royce Duplessis criticized the change, saying, “I have never seen something so barbaric.” The AP report said other New Orleans elected judicial officials whose jobs might be eliminated in the future could be allowed to serve out their terms, but Duncan would not.
Duncan, 62, has been involved in efforts connected to the criminal justice system beyond his campaign. The AP report said he was a driving force behind a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended nonunanimous jury convictions and that he founded a nonprofit aimed at expanding incarcerated people’s access to the court system.