For nearly four decades, Calvin Duncan has worked to help incarcerated people get records from the clerk of court office. 

When he finally got his own records, he found numerous errors that pointed to his innocence. That led to his release — but not until he’d served more than 28 years in prison.

In a poetic moment on Friday, Duncan officially qualified to run for Clerk of Criminal District Court In Orleans Parish. 

Duncan believes that a clerk who truly understands the stakes can reshape how the office operates.

As he stood in front of the courthouse on Tulane Avenue after qualifying for office on Friday, he explained why he was running for the office held by Darren Lombard. “In 1982, I was in prison for a crime I didn’t commit,” he told the gathered crowd. “I always had problems trying to get records from the clerk of court here.”

His campaign is focused on three central goals: ensuring court records are accurate and accessible, making election operations transparent and fair, and turning the clerk’s office into a place of public trust and service.

“I decided today I was going to attempt to make a change by becoming a clerk so that we can help people get access to their records,” said Duncan, who has heard for years about loved ones who got “the run-around” when trying to get records, he said. “Family members that come here should be greeted with respect and dignity. It shouldn’t be a difficult task just to get records.” 

Duncan’s name is already well-known to many in the legal-reform community. After his release from Angola State Penitentiary, Louisiana’s infamous maximum-security prison, Duncan is determined to change the system so that no one else faces the wrongful charges based on nonexistent physical evidence and questionable testimony.

That makes Duncan’s campaign for Clerk of Court more than just another political bid, he said. The clerk’s office, often overlooked by voters, plays a vital role in record-keeping, election oversight, and access to court documents. 

Duncan filed for office only a few days after Penguin Random House released his memoir, The Jailhouse Lawyer, co-written with Sophie Cull, which tells his story, as a 19-year-old, wrongfully convicted Black man who taught himself the law behind bars, to make up for the failures of the criminal-justice system.

Key to his struggle was his inability to get his records.

The struggles for records are most difficult for anyone who is incarcerated, he said. “Anybody in the world could come to this city to get access to their records other than the people that’s in jail.” He recalled his frustrations with that issue when he was at Angola. “It’s our record and we can’t get access to it.”

Upon his release, won with the help of the Innocent Project New Orleans, Duncan refused to stop. He attended Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, earned a Juris Doctor degree, co-founded the Light of Justice Initiative. His legal career is marked by his roles in landmark legal victories like Smith v. Cain and Ramos v. Louisiana.

True reform begins with those who know the failures of the system from surviving it, Duncan said.

“From a prison law library to the parish ballot,” Duncan says, “I’ve walked every inch of this journey. Now it’s time to put power where it counts.”