By Restoring Accountability, Integrity and Transparency!

[Editor’s NOTE: The following article exceeds the allotted one-per-week, but it was submitted earlier and is being released at filing dates to make readers aware of the importance of this election.] –This is NOT a candidate endorsement.]

We currently have a District Attorney’s Office that is badly in need of reform. The Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal have issued numerous opinions rebuking the District Attorney’s Office for violating constitutional, procedural, and evidentiary rules. In several cases, including two death penalty cases, convictions were overturned on account of this. Violations include the withholding of evidence that was favorable to the accused, the introduction of evidence the prosecutor knew or should have known was not proper, and the systematic exclusion from jury service of members of a minority group.

We will put an end to these and all other practices that are unethical, divisive, or wasteful.

We pledge to you that we will:

1. Insist on absolute integrity and the highest standard of ethical conduct; unethical or illegal conduct will result in immediate firing.
2. Seek the death penalty in a manner that is meaningful, open, and Read more

By Lee Harville

A Caddo Parish Assistant District Attorney asked me the other day, “Who is more powerful in Caddo Parish: the Caddo Parish District Attorney or the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office?” He gave a compelling argument for why the District Attorney was more powerful than Sheriff Steve Prator.

I think this entire thought process is symbolic of the problem. There is no more team in Caddo Parish, there is no more we. There is only us versus them.

Prosecutors brag about their power and their accomplishments. I have sent this many people to jail. I have tried this many cases. I have . . . ; I have . . . ; I have . . . . Read more

By Casey Simpson

The Caddo Parish office of the district attorney ignores American standards of fair play and substantial justice by violating basic rights to a speedy trial and a jury of peers, for example, and this has bloated the docket, impaired the criminal court’s function, and wastes our resources. We have a problem, I can fix it, and I express how on my website.

Induced incarceration, caused, and perpetuated by the policies of the DA’s office, resulting in jail crowding of mostly indigent defendants accused of petty crimes and minor probation violations, multiple felony offenders who need to be tried, but have not, is the avoidable result. Cases prescribe. Rare dismissals or misdemeanor plea
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by Lee Harville

Shreveport recently has been met with unspeakable tragedy.  One of our brightest was murdered doing what police do every day: moving toward danger, toward a person bent on harming another. He followed his oath to serve and to protect. Though there may have been safer alternatives, he acted to protect us, an act of devotion to his oath that cost him his life.
 
This is the same unflinching devotion that we will show those left behind to mourn. It’s the same steadfast support we pledge to the entire Shreveport Police Department, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, all law enforcement and first responders. Let there be no doubt, however, that the District Attorney does these brave people no service by trying criminal cases in media nor the court of public opinion. The District Attorney serves and protects law enforcement by guaranteeing them and the community that killing a police officer is inexcusable, intolerable Read more