Louisiana state senators performed a valuable service by public vetting of a rogue prosecutor’s action where he substituted his own agenda in place of the state’s Constitution and criminal code.
This week, the Senate Judiciary C Committee held a hearing concerning post-conviction relief. This is a legal procedure where a convict can have a sentence reduced or even a conviction overturned by a claim of factual innocence combined with corroborating evidence, or by verification of some kind of legal impairment in the case. Time constraints apply except under circumstances such as new or review of old evidence or DNA testing results and the like.
The issue didn’t raise much attention until three years ago. Until then, such cases occasionally cropped up, but then two things happened. First, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional non-unanimous jury results and ordered the two states allowing these, one being Louisiana, to set up a review process for all people convicted this way which created 1,500 or so potential reviews. The state did so and set a one-year time limit on petitioning.