Nobody wants to be D.A. apparently

Is Leon just grandstanding and fearmongering to hear himself talk?

Orleans Parish prosecutors lost almost as many trials as they won last year, a steep drop in convictions from just two years ago, when prosecutors secured guilty verdicts in three out of four of the 60 cases that produced a verdict.

In response, and amid an exodus of mid-level prosecutors, Cannizzaro has asked senior litigators once assigned solely to major felonies to train recent law school graduates.

“Our crime-weary citizens rightly expect the prosecutors of our office to be determined, competitive and proficient in the courtroom,” Cannizzaro said in a recent interview. “We have recognized where our trial numbers have deviated from the usual standards, and that is why we implemented in December a temporary reorganization plan.”

In a better world we might think a declining conviction rate is a good thing since it means, at the very least, that the District Attorney has slightly less leverage to go around bullying people than he currently does.   It also would mean we wouldn't have to allocate so much money to Leon's office which, as we can see, is what he's really pushing for here.

The DA blames the city.

He says that a $600,000 annual budget cut — roughly 5% of his overall budget — imposed by the City Council in 2017 and 2018 prompted lawyers to leave. The funding was restored in 2019, and in the 2020 budget his office has received a $500,000 increase.

But as long as Leon is free to assume that people really are "crime weary" (and the media does nothing to discourage them from feeling that way, he'll continue to push for more money to spend on putting more people in jail.

One would also assume that he's in the news making all this noise because he's gearing up to run for reelection but... there are these "rumors."

Some courthouse observers speculate that prosecutors are leaving because of the uncertainty ahead of this fall’s district attorney election. Cannizzaro hasn’t said whether he’s running, and the one contender who has announced, City Councilman Jason Williams, promises to be a formidable candidate.

“The rumors change from day to day” as to whether Cannizzaro will run, said Gregg Carter, a criminal defense attorney.

Yeah, well, there were similar rumors the last time he was up for reelection too.  Also there are similar rumblings that maybe Williams is thinking about backing out of the race himself. 

If so, it's odd to find him running around downtown with a bullhorn and getting on TV and stuff.  Is there a trick to running for D.A. that involves really seeming like you don't want to run for D.A.?