Political Witchhunt in Louisiana

Louisiana Supreme Court halts criminal case against AG Liz Murrill, citing 'extraordinary' procedural failures

The Louisiana Supreme Court stepped in Friday to freeze the criminal prosecution of Attorney General Liz Murrill, just one day after a New Orleans grand jury handed up a 16-count indictment accusing the state's top law enforcement officer of intimidation and malfeasance. The court's stay order did not hold back: the indictment, it said, "appears to turn the law on its head."

The speed alone is striking. A grand jury indicts a sitting attorney general on Thursday. By Friday, the state's highest court has halted the case, found the defendant is likely to win dismissal, and identified what it called "extraordinary procedural defects and improprieties" in the way the charges were brought.

That timeline raises a question worth asking plainly: Was this prosecution built to hold up in court, or was it built to make a political point?

The charges against Murrill, Louisiana's first female attorney general and a Republican, arose from a dispute over the restructuring of a New Orleans court clerk position.

Earlier this year, the state legislature abolished the elected criminal court clerk office in New Orleans and merged it with another clerk role. Months later, Calvin Duncan, whose murder conviction was vacated after more than 28 years in prison, won election to the now-abolished position.

Read about this crazy case...