After only one term in office, voters have ousted Darren Lombard from the Clerk of Criminal Court’s Office.
Lombard lost in his bid for reelection to challenger Calvin Duncan. With 73 percent of precincts reporting, Duncan led Lombard by a two-to-one margin.
Duncan, who served time in the Angola State Penitentiary for a 1981 murder he didn’t commit, founded the Light of Justice program to help others who were wrongly convicted secure their releases from prison. Duncan taught himself the law while incarcerated and later graduated from the Tulane University Law School.
The race gained wider attention than typical clerks of court races after Lombard claimed that Duncan’s statements that he was “exonerated” of murder was not factually accurate. Louisiana Attorney General waded into the race to back up Lombard’s statement, saying that Duncan misrepresented the facts of his case because he pleaded to a lesser charge.
Those attacks on Duncan backfired. Attorneys, legal scholars, and elected officials defended Duncan, saying that he was indeed exonerated because a judge found that he was wrongfully convicted. The controversy played a role in Lombard finishing second to Duncan in the October runoff by one percentage point.
Despite a late endorsement by Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, Lombard’s campaign never recovered.
Duncan will take office in May.