How is District Attorney Jason Williams doing?
There seemed to be a lack of prosecutions in the DA's office, but that trend may be shifting. The Metropolitan Crime Commission has a report that tracks the trend.
Rafael Goyeneche, President of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, joined WWL's Newell Normand on Wednesday to publicly release the "District Attorney Arrest-to-Conviction" report.
The report revealed that few of the people arrested by New Orleans Police on felony charges in 2021 actually faced consequences.
"You've heard me say often that police officers' arrests are only as good as the DA's prosecution and the numbers in this report are telling," Normand said.
"In 2021, 39% of all the [felony] cases that were closed were dismissals," Goyeneche explained. "So another 30% of the cases were refused; another 16% of those felony cases were allowed to plea to misdemeanors."
"The end by-product was, only 15% of the felony arrests made by the police department resulted in a felony conviction," he said.
Normand said the report really reveals the "overwhelming nature" of the DA's office and its ability to manage through cases in an appropriate fashion.
"It jumped off the pages that this is someone [Williams] who's not really managed the number of cases presented here," Normand said. "And I guess for him, coming from private practice it would be overwhelming because they're just not used to managing these types of cases and having to interact with other parties within the criminal justice system."
Listen to Normand's full conversation with Goyeneche here.