Grand jury indicts Louisiana's attorney general in fight over changes to local courts

By — Safiyah Riddle, Associated Press Safiyah Riddle, Associated Press By — John Hanna, Associated Press John Hanna, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/grand-jury-indicts-louisianas-attorney-general-in-fight-over-changes-to-local-courts Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Grand jury indicts Louisiana's attorney general in fight over changes to local courts Politics Jul 2, 2026 6:55 PM EDT Louisiana's Republican attorney general was indicted Thursday on criminal charges by a grand jury in New Orleans, accused of trying to intimidate local officials who fought a law enacted by GOP legislators to overhaul the local courts. Attorney General Liz Murrill told eight New Orleans officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno and District Attorney Jason Williams, that they could face removal from their jobs for opposing the law. It eliminated the position of Orleans Parish criminal court clerk after a man who spent decades in prison for a wrongful conviction was elected to the post with 68% of the vote. Legislators approved the law at Republican Gov. Jeff Landry's urging just days before Calvin Duncan was to take office in May. Duncan's supporters saw it as a move by a majority white conservative Legislature to thwart the will of voters in a predominantly Black Democratic hub in a red state. newsletter id="politics" style="yellow" /] Duncan was a jailhouse lawyer who later graduated from law school. He founded a nonprofit dedicated to expanding incarcerated people's access to the court system and was the driving force behind a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended nonunanimous jury convictions. Murrill and other Louisiana officials have long denied his innocence even though he is listed on the National Registry of Exonerations. Bond for Murrill was set at $400,000 on Thursday, according to court records. Landry slammed the indictment in a social media post on Thursday, promising to pardon Murrill "as fast as the law allows." "The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we will not have any of that!" he wrote on X, where he called the system a "Kangaroo court." The Republican Attorneys General Association called the indictment "as outrageous as it is dangerous." The GOP group said in making her statements that Murrill was simply "issuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law" as part of her official duties. Murrill's critics saw it as an attempt to intimidate them into accepting the law. Local officials had a swearing-in ceremony for Duncan on the steps of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court two weeks before he was to take office — while lawmakers still were considering the measure to eliminate his job, combining its duties with those of the civil court clerk. The City Council also sought to oust the civil court clerk in May and set a special election for November to fill the combined job — and give Dun