Jason Williams wins New Orleans DA race, promising new era in prosecutors office
Shrugging off federal tax fraud charges and opposition from much of the city’s political establishment, Jason Williams clinched victory Saturday in the Orleans Parish district attorney’s race with a call for massive changes to an office that's been dogged by allegations of prosecutorial overreach.
With all 351 of the city's precincts reporting late Saturday, Williams had received 58% of the vote compared with 42% for former judge and onetime interim district attorney Keva Landrum.
The first district attorney without prior experience as a prosecutor in at least half a century, Williams has pledged to make a sharp break with the policies of current District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, a traditional "tough on crime" city prosecutor who did not seek reelection.
The City Council president and criminal defense attorney has said that as district attorney, he’ll divert or decline more cases from prosecution, cease using the state’s habitual offender law to raise sentences and never prosecute juveniles in adult court. Williams has also pledged to create a civil rights division to review old cases for prosecutor misconduct or excessive sentences.
https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_f044cf7a-368a-11eb-ac4b-0bbdab4e0c09.html
