Recent deaths of prominent Black women point to a national epidemic that has persisted for decades. The problem is particularly acute in Louisiana, where 24% of the people killed in intimate-partner violence were Black women.
As a former teacher, it’s easy for me to connect those involved with last year’s jailbreak with their past, as students who went through the storm, were displaced, and returned to schools in tumult.
On Monday, thanks to a favorable decision, Duncan served as clerk of Criminal District Court for three hours, until the Fifth Circuit put a hold on that decision. Outside of court, he has become a newfound New Orleans celebrity.
Louisiana’s Parole Board conducts hearings in public, offering a rare window into how life-changing decisions are made inside the criminal justice system.
A Baton Rouge teenager once appeared on camera as proof that violence prevention could work. Two years later, he is charged in a shooting that killed 17-year-old Martha Odom. Their stories are not separate tragedies. They are connected by the same policy choices, budget cuts and abandoned promises that leave one child dead and another held by a system that failed to hold him sooner.
The judge found Senate Bill 256 unconstitutional because the state abolished an office, created a new office to replace it, and then appointed someone for that office "all when the Louisiana Constitution requires an election."
DC and 31 states including Louisiana supported the DOJ’s position that police should be able to use geofence warrants.
Two tragedies, in Virginia and Louisiana, highlight the peril that some women and children face during divorce or separation.
The three judgeships slated to be cut from the courthouse at Tulane Avenue and Broad Street represent far more than three individual judges losing their positions. They represent hundreds of cases that will now have to be handled by the remaining nine judges.
Louisiana's child welfare system was built to protect children. For Black girls, it has become another door into the pipeline.
