A grand jury indicts Louisiana's attorney general in a fight over
changes to New Orleans courts
[July 03, 2026]
BY SAFIYAH RIDDLE and JOHN HANNA
Louisiana’s attorney general was indicted Thursday over accusations she
threatened the jobs of New Orleans leaders who fought a Republican-led
overhaul of local courts in the heavily Democratic city.
The 16-count indictment against Republican Liz Murrill, handed up by a
New Orleans grand jury, charges Louisiana’s first female attorney
general with intimidation and malfeasance. At the center of the case are
deepening rifts between state leaders in Louisiana, which is heavily
Republican, and Democrats who control the state’s most prominent city.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry promised a swift pardon, saying Murrill
would not have her reputation tarnished by an “Orleans Kangaroo court.”
Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat, was among those who had accused the
state’s top law enforcement official in May of making threats against
public officials.
Murrill called the case against her “retaliatory, meritless, and
unconstitutional." Late Thursday, Murrill said she had filed for an
emergency stay with the Louisiana Supreme Court.
“I will not back down. I will continue enforcing the law, fighting
corruption, and doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do,”
she wrote on X.
For months, political tensions intensified between Louisiana Republicans
and New Orleans officials over a new law that abolished a court clerk
office won by an exoneree, Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly three decades
in prison. The change consolidated that job with another clerk's office,
which Republican supporters said would make the local judicial system
more efficient.
The change was staunchly opposed by New Orleans leaders, and in May, the
city council set a special election that would have given Duncan a
chance to win the newly combined job. Murrill responded by warning local
officials in letters that they could lose their offices for violating
state “usurper” laws, which forbid support for an unauthorized
officeholder.
“We’re very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being
intimidated or threatened by letter or any other way,” special
prosecutor Laurie White told reporters.
Bond set for Louisiana attorney general
Bond for Murrill was set at $400,000 on Thursday, according to court
records.
Landry said he was ordering state police to investigate what he called
“alleged improprieties” of the grand jury and those who ran it.
“The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we
will not have any of that!” he wrote on X.
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Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks with attendees during
an election night watch party for U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Julia
Letlow, R-La., May 16, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Matthew
Hinton, File)
The Republican Attorneys General Association said that making
statements to local officials — in writing — was simply “issuing a
legal opinion and warning public officials about the law” as part of
her official duties. It called the indictment “as outrageous as it
is dangerous.”
Moreno, who was elected in January and was defiant after Murrill
sent the letters, on Thursday called it a “matter for the courts”
and did not directly address the allegations.
“My focus, as always, remains on fulfilling the responsibilities the
people of New Orleans elected me to carry out,” Moreno said.
Elected clerk says state targeted him
Duncan has said he believes state officials were retaliating against
him in eliminating the job he won with 68% of the vote. Murrill and
Landry have long refused to acknowledge his innocence, though he’s
listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.
Republicans have said the change was not personal and supporters
have noted that the offices of criminal and civil clerks of courts
are combined in other parishes.
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.
Duncan spent more than 28 years in prison over a fatal shooting
during a robbery in 1981.
The night before a 2011 hearing to consider new evidence,
prosecutors offered to reduce Duncan’s sentence to the time he’d
already served in prison if he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and
armed robbery. Duncan took the deal and was freed but didn’t give up
on clearing his name.
In 2021, a judge agreed that Duncan had been unjustly convicted and
vacated his sentence altogether. Landry and Murrill have pointed to
the 2011 plea deal in objecting to Duncan calling himself
exonerated.
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Associated Press reporter Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed.
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