(The Center Square) − In 2020, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams pledged sweeping criminal justice reforms in a candidate questionnaire submitted to the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana.
“I can pledge that my policy of not using the habitual offender laws and actually having a much more robust and rigorous screening division with an eye towards declining & diverting cases that should not be prosecuted will drastically reduce Orleans Parish’s state prison admissions,” Williams wrote in his response to the ACLU’s “People’s DA” questionnaire.
Now five years into his term as Orleans Parish district attorney, those pledges — from ending marijuana prosecutions to reducing pretrial detention and eliminating use of habitual offender enhancements — appear to have become policy.
Last year, the DA’s office refused nearly 40% of all felony charges and nearly 60% of all misdemeanor charges, according to public data.
The DA’s office has defended its approach as a conscious shift toward reducing over-criminalization and promoting alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders — goals clearly outlined in Williams’ ACLU responses.
“I will ensure that suspects who are dangerous to others will still be held, while implementing safe alternatives to cash bail for those charged with nonviolent offenses, including monitoring and regular check-ins” Williams pledged in the questionnaire.
He also committed to declining prosecution of marijuana possession charges — which he viewed as having “long-standing patterns of racially disparate impacts on African-Americans” — and promised to reduce reliance on unaffordable fines and fees. Williams vowed that the “lion’s share of level non-violent accused will be allowed to remain in their homes and communities while awaiting resolution of their cases.”
The ACLU questionnaire also asked candidates to support legislative reforms such as repealing Louisiana’s habitual offender laws and abolishing the death penalty, both of which Williams marked as supporting.
Williams appears to have kept many of his promises.
In his first year alone, Williams dismissed 1,859 open felony prosecutions — cases where suspects had been arrested and charged, only to be dropped without a conviction, according to a 2024 report by the Metropolitan Crime Commission. That same report found that 25% of those individuals were rearrested on new felony charges within two years.
Though Williams’ policies are controversial, crime in New Orleans has seen a substantial overall decrease — down 35% since Williams took office in 2021.
Still, a pattern of declining serious charges remains.
As previously reported, a six-person indictment that originally included 48 felony gun charges were all dropped. The only conviction that remained was for marijuana possession — under 14 grams — for which the assailant received credit for time served and was released.
One of the six defendants was recently indicted for second-degree murder.
MCC’s 2024 analysis also shows the felony arrest-to-conviction rate under Williams fell to 20% in 2022, down from 44% in 2019 under his predecessor. Violent felony acceptance rates dropped from 75% in 2020 to 54% in 2021.
Another high-profile case involves a man who has been booked on more than 40 charges since 2021. At least 24 of those charges — including multiple weapons violations and four counts of violating protective orders — were dropped by Williams’ office. The man was most recently wanted for a hit-and-run involving five juveniles and has since been charged.
