'Go under oath and testify': Mike Pence called out for not coming forward earlier about Jan 6th
February 06, 2022
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Louisiana spent $7.7 million on death penalty defense — but hasn’t executed anyone in 13 years
March 21, 2023
Louisiana spent $7.7 million providing legal defense to people facing the death penalty in 2022, according to the Louisiana Public Defender’s Office, even though the state hasn’t executed anyone in 13 years.
The most recently Louisiana has put someone to death was Gerald Bordelon in January 2010, after he waived his right to legal appeals and fast-tracked his own killing. Prior to his death, Louisiana hadn’t executed anyone since 2002.
State officials told a federal judge last spring they haven’t been able to obtain the drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection in years and stopped scheduling executions as a result. Gov. John Bel Edwards also doesn’t appear to be enthusiastic about capital punishment. He has refused to share his personal views on the death penalty.
Regardless of whether executions are moving forward, Louisiana must provide a vigorous defense for people who face death sentences. Federal law requires robust legal services and extra scrutiny for capital crimes.
The Louisiana Public Defender Board outsources most of the state’s capital defense to five nonprofit organizations with attorneys who specialize in death penalty defense. Four of them – Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, Baton Rouge Capital Conflict, Inc. and the Capital Appeals Project – were among the top 10 most expensive legal contracts in all of state government in the last budget cycle, according to a state report on government contracts.
The $7.7 million spent last year covered initial trials, appeals and post-conviction legal challenges. It also includes approximately $195,000 for expert witnesses and extra funding to the public defender’s office in Jefferson Parish, which handles some of its own capital cases.
In 2022, there were only 18 open capital cases and two appeals across the state, but State Public Defender Rémy Voisin Starns said his office is also responsible for the representation of approximately two-thirds of the 62 people who are on death row. The outside attorneys also work on cases where the death penalty is initially a possibility but doesn’t end up on the table.
Starns said the state would do better to eliminate capital punishment and spend that money on other public defender needs.
On Monday, he asked legislators for an additional $5 million for more public defender offices around the state. He also wants to hire six social workers to help with juvenile defendants, who often have a difficult time communicating with their assigned attorneys.
Caddo, Lafayette and East Baton Rouge parishes also need more local staff attorneys, and the state should start offering all the lawyers who worked as public defenders health insurance and retirement benefits, Starns said. Some local governments cover the cost of health insurance and retirement for their public defenders, but those benefits aren’t offered in every part of the state, he said.
In the last budget cycle, the state spent $50.5 million on public defense, though one of its main sources of funding has fallen off a financial cliff. There’s been a drastic drop in the collection of traffic court fees across the state, which are used to pay for public defense. The number of traffic court filings went from 1.26 million in 2009 to just 475,335 in 2021, according to the state public defender’s most recent annual report. That means public defense is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue each year.
Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.
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Megachurch pastor sues after sex assault allegations: 'It was only kissing and awkward fondling'
March 21, 2023
A former Southern Baptist president is suing his former church after he was accused of assaulting another pastor's wife, saying his reputation was ruined by the allegations, Religion News Service reported.
Lawyers for the Rev. Johnny Hunt, who headed a Georgia megachurch, admit that he “had a brief, inappropriate, extramarital encounter with a married woman” in 2010, but that it was consensual and should not have been made public. “Some of the precise details are disputed, but at most, the encounter lasted only a few minutes, and it involved only kissing and some awkward fondling,” the complaint read.
In a May 2022 investigation by Guidepost Solutions, the firm found that Hunt had actually sexually assaulted the woman. Hunt's suit accuses Guidepost of defamation, libel and invasion of privacy.
“The decision to smear Pastor Johnny’s reputation with these accusations has led him to suffer substantial economic and other damages,” according to the complaint. “He has lost (his) job and income; he has lost current and future book deals; and he has lost the opportunity to generate income through speaking engagements.”
READ MORE: North Carolina man put swastikas in his yard after Black businesswoman set up shop next door: report
“By focusing on the allegation against Pastor Johnny — an allegation by an adult woman that involved noncriminal conduct — and by then taking aggressive action against Pastor Johnny, the Defendants sought to create the appearance that the SBC has learned from its previous mistakes and is now working to protect victims of sex crimes,” the complaint claims.
“Defendants’ decision to feature the allegation against Pastor Johnny in their public report was a strategic decision to deflect attention from the SBC’s historical failure to take aggressive steps to respond to reports of child sex abuse and other sex crimes in its past,” it continues.
During a sermon at New Season Church in Hiram, Georgia on March 19, Hunt said his attorney "has asked me to allow the case to play out."
“However, if I had done what that report says I’ve done, there is no way I could have preached today.”
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GOP's James Comer: I felt like my constituents were 'rooting for the rioters' on January 6th
March 21, 2023
In an interview with the New York Times, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) reveals how much he struggled with his vote to certify the 2020 presidential election.
In particular, Comer called the vote to certify the election as the hardest he has ever taken, and he says he was taken aback by the anger his constituents expressed against him for doing so.
“I mean, people were mad,” Comer tells the Times. “It was like they were rooting for the rioters.”
Former President Donald Trump incited hundreds of his supporters to violently storm the Capitol building on January 6th, 2021, a scene that Comer tells the Times reminded him of an episode of "The Walking Dead."
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Although Trump eventually asked his supporters to leave the Capitol after watching them riot for more than three hours, he also told them that, "we love you, you're very special."
Since then, he has claimed that the rioters are political prisoners, has demanded their immediate release from prison, and has pledged to give them all pardons and an apology if he is elected president again.
Although Comer did vote to certify President Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election, he did not join ten of his House Republican colleagues in crossing the aisle to support impeaching Trump for inciting the riots.
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