NEW ORLEANS — The Metropolitan Crime Commission released a scathing report on Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams' first two years in the position, alleging that the DA "undermined the work of the New Orleans Police Department" by refusing to prosecute or dismissing more than half of the force's felony arrests during that time.
The MCC was founded as a watchdog agency by the business community to keep an eye on crime.
Williams' office responded to the report Wednesday afternoon, saying that while some of the MCC's numbers are factual, it doesn't prove that the city was a less safe place as a result.
"This idea that we can solve the crime problem in its entirety by mass incarceration has been proven wrong time and time again," said a statement from Williams' office.
MCC President Rafael Goyeneche contends the report shows that the city was, in fact, a less safe place, likely from Williams' policies.
"We saw crime accelerate in 2021 and 2002 as the new DA was implementing new policies that benefitted offenders to the detriment of public safety," he said.
The MCC said the rate of felony arrests that resulted in convictions those two years fell from 44 percent in 2019 under Williams' predecessor Leon Cannizzaro to 20 percent in 2022 under Williams.
“Felony offenders are not deterred from continuing to victimize the citizenry when there are little to no consequences for felony violations of the law,” said Goyeneche.
The DA's office said it doesn't consider what the statistics will look like when making decisions to charge a suspect.
"This is what the statistics and conviction rates look like when you don't cheat...or threaten to use the habitual offender statute in every case, or have defendants who cannot afford to bond out pleading guilty just to go home and get back to their jobs, regardless of their guilt or innocence. This often occurred at arraignment before discovery had been even completed in prior administrations," said the statement.
"We, as prosecutors, have to embody what that fairness looks like - even when others don't."
The DA's office noted that the report was released "on the tails of a special session designed to roll back the bipartisan criminal justice reforms of 2017, which sought to change our status as leaders of mass incarceration."
The statement also pointed out that after the DA's office put in new initiatives, the city had a 27 percent decline in homicides in 2023.
The MCC noted that Williams has "begun modifying some of the policies" that it contends led to a decline in felony convictions.
Williams notably came off of his campaign pledge not to try juveniles as adults, specifically in the case of Linda Frickey, a woman who was carjacked and dragged to her death by four juveniles.