Louisiana Conservatives Criticize District Attorney For Criminal Justice Reform Efforts

September 7, 2024
New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams, elected in 2020, has focused on addressing the legacy of the city’s inequitable treatment of its Black citizens.
New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams is facing criticism from Louisiana’s conservatives over his use of criminal justice reform policies that he claims have been created to correct prosecutorial and police misconduct in the city. 
According to Salon, Williams, who was elected in 2020, has focused on addressing the legacy of the city’s inequitable treatment of its Black citizens while the state more broadly deals with high incarceration rates. 
This focus has placed him in the cross hairs of Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill and other conservatives, who claim that he is abusing his power as district attorney. 
According to the Associated Press, Murrill took issue with Williams‘ policy of providing relief, which is liberal compared to district attorneys in nearby Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes. 
“The job is to enforce the law and not make the law,” Murrill said. “If the district attorney had a disagreement regarding policy, that’s not a basis for relief.”
However, Maybell Romano, a Tulane University professor of law, told Salon that the criticism of Williams is in line with pushback created for other progressive district attorneys across the country. 
Romero said the pushback in such cases is “political pushback” for district attorneys who challenge “hard on crime, very pro-police officer, very pro- ‘Let’s convict as much as we can and as many people as we can, and never shall we reconsider whether this was fair or not’” approach favored by conservatives. 
Romero continued, saying that across the nation the pattern is familiar. “It’s mostly Democratic, elected district attorneys who are getting this pushback from largely right-leaning Republican legislatures.”
To the professor’s point, Williams asserted to the AP that his use of the practice is simply following through on his campaign promises. 
“This is not just waking up and saying, ‘Hey, let’s try something new,” Williams said. “This is listening to the community and answering and trying to deliver.”
Will Snowden, a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans, told Salon that Williams is trying to keep people out of his office unless they are committing violent crimes.
“I often describe the criminal legal system as the catch basin for the failures of the other systems. So when our education systems fail, or when our access to housing fails, or when our access to jobs fail, those systems’ failures can direct more people to have contact with the criminal legal system,” Snowden told Salon. “And I think D.A. Williams is aware of that relationship. And so not only is he laser-focused on prosecuting people for committing violent crimes, but he’s also aware that there needs to be more advocacy and investment at the front end of the system to prevent people from coming to his office in the first place.”
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