We’ve addressed the problems with the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court almost ad-nauseum, and when this story broke that jury trials are suspended, I had to do a double-take.
How did we find ourselves in this position?
We’ve had a shortage of prosecutors, a shortage of deputies and a shortage of jurors. This system in the criminal justice arena has not clicked on all cylinders for a long, long time. And recently it seemed as though we were just starting to gain some positive movement, positive momentum, showing signs of getting back to normal. Then, we find out on 1/23/23 that all jury trials have been suspended for the remainder of the month of January and for the entire month of February.
Do you know what kind of disruption that is?
There are only 52 weeks in a year and we’re going to take off six weeks out of the 52 weeks (not to mention holidays like Christmas, Mardi Gras, etc…)? Our arrests are only as good as the D.A.’s prosecution and only as good as getting these cases through the courts. So here we are with another serious disruption? This is the last thing we need…as New Orleans now wears the banner of “Murder Capital of the United States.”
I had the opportunity to talk to a number of players within the criminal justice system throughout Southeast Louisiana. I was trying to gain a better understanding about how we got to this jury trial suspension. How did the law change so that you could serve on a jury after a five-year passage of time…if you were charged with a felony, found guilty of a felony, pled to a felony…then served your probation, five years from that date, when you’ve finally completed everything, you’re able to serve on a jury. I don’t see a big problem with that. You paid your debt to society, you’re moving on, you’re staying out of trouble. But when we change laws like this…when you are judged by a jury of your peers and composition of that jury changes…how can we in the criminal justice system not implement the changes? It’s mindboggling!
The downstream implications are potentially huge! We’ve had all of these jury trials in the interim and we’re not certain whether or not this neglect to implement this fundamental change is going to impact those juries. We don’t know if we can go back and determine whether or not a potential juror, who fits this classification, was eliminated from ever having the possibility of being in the jury venire.
That’s going to take a lot of investigation. It’s going to take a lot of time and manpower. We all know where I stand on a lot of these issues, but when it comes down to these basic Constitutional rights, we have to get on all our P’s & Q’s.
So, what are we doing? I reached out to Jefferson Parish and I spoke to Clerk of Court, Jon Gegenheimer. I asked, “Are you aware of these changes?” He said, “Oh yes sir.” I asked, “What did y’all do?” Gegenheimer said, “I have a lawyer on my staff that reviews all of the legislative changes that are made that impact the court that I have responsibility for, and I make sure that we institute the changes.” I then asked, “Did you institute the changes?” He replied, “Yes we did. Went to the website and checked it, its fine. The jury noticed the questionnaire that there’s been changes. It’s been fully implemented.” Now why is it that system changes like this works in some jurisdictions and not others?
Later on I found out that there may be a number of other jurisdictions throughout the state of Louisiana that may not have implemented these changes either. Can you imagine the horror of a rape victim, who decided to move forward…the jury was selected, they took the stand, gave heart-wrenching testimony…only to find out that potentially a juror, who falls into this classification (former felon), was eliminated…then that case gets thrown out? So, now this victim, who’s already suffered the worst possible abuse, has to go through the entire painful process again? Can you fathom experiencing that kind of the trauma a second time?
I don’t know about you, but I’m angry. I don’t know whose fault this is, but I do know this - the Louisiana Supreme Court has supervisory jurisdiction over all of these courts. That court needs to act. Because what I also found is that there are a number of legislative enactments that occur every year that never get implemented into the criminal justice system. Yep, there may be other challenges coming our way, where we may have to compel victims to tell their story over and over and over again.
We’re fighting for our lives on the streets of the State of Louisiana and we’re not paying attention. We have judges going to CLE’s (continuing legal education) until there’s no tomorrow, and we’re not minding our P’s & Q’s. We’re not dotting the “I’s” and we’re not crossing the “T’s.” As cliché as all of that sounds, what’s happening is these judges are dropping the ball and we the citizens of Louisiana are the ones impacted. Someone needs to be brought to account, because when it comes to the basic Constitutional rights of the criminal defendant, we need to make sure and ensure that the system is sacrosanct. There’s no excuse here. We have judicial colleges, CLE’s and all that goes on, and this happens?!?
Someone needs to be held to account.
I’m a firm believer that the Louisiana Supreme Court needs to take control of this and when there are changes, whether that’s a “Boykin Form” or whatever it may be, there’s standardization across this state to make sure and ensure that we don’t have to have these Constitutional challenges. And guess what one of the byproducts of this debacle might be? Less litigation! So we can move more cases through this system…and we’re not getting bogged down because we’re not dropping the ball on these issues.
I just can’t get through this thought process that we know that in almost every legislative session there are tweaks. These tweaks have to be incorporated operationally in the criminal justice system every year. Sure, we can make mistakes sometimes. But these types of mistakes, folks, have HUGE implications.
Does anyone believe that we are in a position to suffer a six-week hiatus? (And, I’m told that it may be longer than that.) That’s just the initial review (because of the manner in which we summon jurors to this court)…a six-week disruption where we have no jury trials? We are fighting for our lives! We are conducting ourselves like we are a third-world country! Can somebody please WAKE UP!!! Do we not understand the implications of dropping this ball? It doesn’t make any sense! And we cavalierly announce the suspension of jury trials in New Orleans by virtue of a letter from Orleans Parish Criminal District Court to the organization that’s pushing the edges of the envelope to this issue:
“Dear Ms. Posner, this is to advise you in response to your letters dated 1/12/2023 & 1/20/2023, the jury venires for the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court have been deferred for the remainder of January, 2023 and February, 2023. Regards, Chief Judge Robin Pittman”
CC’ed to all Honorable Judges and Robert Kazik, Judicial Administrator.”
This is a big deal…this is huge. Now, I know we’re probably embarrassed by this sheer neglect of responsibility. Quite frankly, we should be embarrassed! We should be completely and totally ashamed…appalled… outraged! Think of all the wasted work, if we nullify all jury finds with jury trials since August of 2021, when that law went into effect. We’re just not that limber or efficient. Do you have any idea how hard this is going to be to overcome? You know how ripe that’s going to be for plea-bargaining, so that we don’t have to go find all of these witnesses again, put these victims through the horror of having to take the witness stand and re-live these hurtful moments in their lives? WE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED!!!
Unfortunately, this has been going on for a while. And if the news reports are right, that this fiasco was brought to judges’ attention and they simply ignored it and didn’t investigate…the Louisiana Supreme Court needs to take action against those individuals and it needs to do it RIGHT NOW! Don’t wait. Get involved. Figure out where this criminal court jurisdiction is in the State of Louisiana. Poll all of the criminal district courts in Louisiana, and determine who’s actually implemented the changes, who hasn’t, and get it remediated now…sooner rather than later. Provide evidence to the citizens of the State of Louisiana that the Louisiana Supreme Court is taking this matter seriously.
Anything less is a travesty.
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