BATON ROUGE, La. — In an hours long hearing at the Louisiana State Capitol Thursday, state leaders questioned if Orleans District Attorney is granting post-conviction relief at a concerning rate, and if he is legally allowed to grant them.
Some claim Williams has granted upwards of 350 post-conviction deals since he took office.
Attorney General Liz Murrill who spoke at Thursday's hearing says while she's still looking through the cases, post-conviction reliefs are happening at a higher rate in Orleans than any other parish.
"The numbers in new Orleans are substantially different than the ones for other District Attorneys across the state by a matter of hundreds," Murrill said. "Now you are undermining the decision not just of the earlier person who stood in your shoes as a District Attorney but every judge and every court who reviewed that case, and the jury."
State senators say violent offenders are being let out which they say is affecting public safety.
"Not one of these cases we reviewed was someone factually innocent and that can't be lost on this committee that these were guilty people many heinous crimes," Senator Jay Morris of West Monroe said.
Williams says though he's not in a rush or breaking the law.
"These things are filed by the defense attorney. We’re not initiating post-conviction relief," Williams said.
Williams says he's trying to help create a fair criminal justice system for everyone.
Williams says he's heard petitions because of convictions by a non unanimous jury – which were deemed unconstitutional, claims of ineffective defense, overuse of habitual offender laws and more.
"There's a lot of talk about factual innocence claims versus technicalities. Constitution is an important document," Williams said. "Due process is important. Cheating, cutting corners."
"If there was any cheating or defect on any conviction whether that’s an innocent person or a guilty person a lawyer and let alone a prosecutor nor a judge can sweep that or should sweep that under the rug," he said.
Lawmakers say they may need to make new laws or tighten ones recently passed to create stricter restrictions. The committee says they plan on holding another hearing but they did not say when.
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