Just make stuff up

The New Orleans D.A.'s office has an interesting approach to establishing the facts of a case.

One of the complaints accuses an assistant district attorney in Cannizzaro's office, Scott Vincent, of repeatedly trying to hoodwink higher courts, often by misrepresenting what happened in lower court proceedings.

The attorney, Thomas Frampton, cites Lewis’ case and 11 other Orleans Parish prosecutions over the past year in which he claims Vincent misstated or invented facts or the law in appellate briefs.

In his other complaint, Frampton takes aim at Cannizzaro, claiming the district attorney knows all about Vincent’s false statements in Lewis’ case and refuses to fix them.

Leon must be angling for Joe Biden's VP slot if he wants to put people in jail that badly.  He still hasn't said if he wants to be reelected D.A. or not. One assumes he does, but it's likely to be a more difficult race than usual now that Jason Williams has made it official. 

But Williams said Tuesday that New Orleans needs a shift away from the tough-on-crime style of prosecution that has defined the DA's Office starting with the 30-year tenure of Harry Connick Sr., who first employed current District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro as a prosecutor.

"At a time when criminal justice reform is being effectively implemented throughout the country, our DA continues locking up low-level, nonviolent offenders in the misguided belief that the more people we put behind bars, the safer we will be," Williams said.

The announcement means Williams is first out of the gate for a highly anticipated race. Cannizzaro has yet to say whether he will seek a third term, and recently retired Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter also hasn’t declared his intentions, despite persistent chatter that he might mount a challenge from the left.

About that Arthur Hunter thing.  I'm no professional politics talking guy but I would venture to say his chances are pretty slim with Williams in the race. But it looks like there may be more personal reasons to consider stemming from that Lewis case. 

Frampton said his meeting with Cannizzaro featured some choice words by the district attorney for Hunter, the judge who presided over Lewis' case and ordered the disputed mistrial.

Cannizzaro described Hunter as “pathetic” and “incompetent,” according to Frampton.

“Mr. Cannizzaro stated that the mistrial had come about because the trial judge ‘didn’t know what the f--k he was doing,’” Frampton wrote. “He shared his belief that the trial court’s mistrial declaration occurred because ‘the judge just got lazy like he normally does over there.’”

Or maybe they'll just let Jason be D.A. now all on his own.  Okay that's a bigger whopper than anything Leon's ADAs could come up with.