Louisiana Republicans reject bill that would address split jury verdicts, a Jim Crow-era practice
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana bill that would have carved out a path for incarcerated people convicted by now-banned split juries the opportunity to ask for a new trial was rejected by Republican state senators on Wednesday, likely killing the measure.
An estimated 1,000 people behind bars in the Deep South state were convicted by non-unanimous juries, a practice rooted in racism from the era of 'Jim Crow' laws and deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020. Advocates say it is past time for Louisiana to right a wrong and to give those people a chance at a fair trial.
Proponents of the bill pointed to multiple examples of innocent people — since exonerated — who were wrongfully convicted by split juries and spent decades in prison. Supporters said the measure could have created a way for any other possibly innocent people behind bars who had been convicted by non-unanimous juries to seek another chance for a fair trial.
The bill would have added non-unanimous verdicts to a list of claims for which an inmate can seek a retrial. Proponents reiterated that the legislation would only have created the opportunity to do so and that it would not have automatically granted a retrial or release.
During debate in the state Senate on Wednesday, Republican lawmakers raised concerns about overburdening courts and district attorneys with additional trials. Proponents said whether a new trial is granted is ultimately at the discretion of district attorneys.
Opponents also raised concerns about the cases being decades-old with some witnesses possibly dead or evidence lost. Supporters countered that old cases are tried all the time and that transcripts of testimony from the original trials could be used.
'This is about what's right, not about what's easy or convenient,' Sen. Royce Duplessis, the New Orleans Democrat who authored the bill, said to his colleagues.
Louisiana adopted the practice of split jury convictions in 1898 during a constitutional convention that was fueled by efforts to maintain white supremacy after the Civil War. Diluting the voice of Black jurors allowed the often-white majority to determine the outcome.
Louisiana voters did not get rid of the practice until 2018, two years before the Supreme Court ruled that it was a violation of the 6th Amendment's guarantee of the right to an impartial jury.
At the time, Louisiana and Oregon were the only states that allowed split decisions — 10-2 or 11-1 jury votes — to result in convictions. The Oregon Supreme Court granted new trials to hundreds of people. But Louisiana's Supreme Court rejected arguments to apply the ruling retroactively.
'If we choose to vote down this bill we're saying that justice has an expiration date,' Duplessis said. 'We have an opportunity in Louisiana to remove this stain, because right now we are the only ones wearing it.'
The bill failed on a vote of 9-26, along party lines. Given the overwhelming lack of support for the bill in the Senate and that there is only a month left in this year's Legislative Session, the measure currently has no viable path forward and is likely dead.
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Miami Herald
28 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Student absences have surged since COVID-19. Some lawmakers say parents should be jailed
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Since Johnson was elected in 2022 on a campaign promise to enforce Oklahoma's compulsory education law, he's forced dozens of students and parents into hasty court appearances and, on several occasions, put parents behind bars in the hope it will compel their children to show up for class. Lawmakers nationwide have taken a similar approach, including in Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia, where new laws leverage the legal system to crack down on student absences. "We prosecute everything from murders to rape to financial crimes, but in my view, the ones that cause the most societal harm is when people do harm to children, either child neglect, child physical abuse, child sexual abuse, domestic violence in homes, and then you can add truancy to the list," Johnson said. "It's not as bad, in my opinion, as beating a child, but it's on the spectrum because you're not putting that child in a position to be successful," continued Johnson, who has dubbed 2025 the "Year of the Child." Since the pandemic, policymakers have taken on a heightened role in addressing persistent student absences, and lawmakers nationwide have proposed dozens of bills this year to combat chronic absenteeism, typically defined as missing 10% of school days in an academic year for any reason. Such efforts have fallen broadly into two camps: incentives and accountability. States like Indiana have taken a similar approach to Johnson's, imposing fines and jail stints for missed seat time. Other efforts have focused on addressing the root causes of chronic absenteeism, like homelessness, and have sought to draw kids to campuses with rewards. In Hawaii, for example, pending legislation seeks to entice student attendance with the promise of free ice cream. In Detroit, where 75% of students were chronically absent last year, the district employs both the carrot and the stick: handing out $200 gift cards to 5,000 students with perfect attendance while warning those with an extremely high number of absences that they can be held back a grade in K-8 or made to repeat classes in high school. In Oklahoma, where parents can be jailed for up to five days and fined $50 each day their child is absent from school without an excuse, proposed legislation would let schools off the hook. For years, Oklahoma schools have received poor grades for chronic absenteeism, one metric the state uses to gauge school performance. If approved, the bipartisan bills would strike chronic absenteeism from the state accountability system, a change officials said is necessary because it's the responsibility of parents-not principals and teachers-to get kids to class. Schools in Oklahoma "have very little control over whether or not a kid gets to school," Rep. 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In others, including Oklahoma, absenteeism has gotten worse since 2021-22. In 2023, nearly a quarter of Oklahoma students were chronically absent, according to the federal data. Chronic absenteeism is particularly acute among Native American, Pacific Islander, Black and Hispanic students, as well as those who are English learners, in special education or live in low-income households. Hedy Chang, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Attendance Works, said the key to solving chronic absenteeism is to address the underlying problems that make kids absent in the first place. The California-based nonprofit focused solely on improving student attendance identifies a range of "root causes", including student disengagement, boredom and unwelcoming school climates. Caregivers' negative education experiences are a factor, according to the nonprofit. So, too, is homelessness and community violence. Last year, lawmakers in 28 states proposed at least 71 bills focused on identifying, preventing and addressing chronic absenteeism, according to analyses by the nonprofit FutureEd. This year, legislators in 20 states are weighing at least 49 bills focused on chronic absences, including efforts to improve data collection and create early interventions. The Oklahoma legislation seeks to replace chronic absenteeism in its school accountability system with an alternative, such as a climate survey, a softer measure that would gauge students', parents' and educators' opinions about their schools. The move would require approval from the U.S. Department of Education. States have been required to collect chronic absenteeism rates since the passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015. Since then, chronic absenteeism has been included as one of six school performance indicators on Oklahoma's annual A-F report cards from the state education department. Currently, 38 states use chronic absenteeism to grade school performance, Chang said. For schools in Oklahoma, the measurement has proven to be a hurdle. In 2022-23, the state's schools received an F grade in chronic absenteeism. Last year, the state grade ticked up slightly-to a D. Removing chronic absenteeism from the state accountability system, Johns, the state lawmaker, said, could allow schools across Oklahoma to receive better grades. Meanwhile, he supports initiatives to handle student absences through the courts, arguing that "parents need to have some skin in the game." "Chronic absenteeism is driving our report card down," Johns said. "Without the chronic absenteeism [measurement], our report card is not going to look as bad as it is because our public schools are doing some really good things, so why shouldn't the report card be a reflection of that?" Chang argued the move is misguided. She pointed to a growing body of research that has found schools can combat absenteeism if they form meaningful relationships with parents and partner with social services agencies that address underlying barriers to attendance, like food insecurity. There's little research to suggest that fines and other forms of punishment improve attendance. Even as some states ramp up truancy rules, others have scaled them back as studies report that punitive measures can backfire. In South Carolina schools, for example, students placed on probation for truancy wound up with even worse school attendance than they had before the courts got involved, according to a 2020 report by the nonprofit Council of State Governments Justice Center. In a report published last year, the Oklahoma State Department of Education highlighted school districts that have made "impressive strides in reducing" chronic absenteeism and that "offer valuable lessons on how schools can re-engage students." Among them is a 24% drop in absenteeism at Dahlonegah Public Schools, which hired a school-based police officer to visit the homes of students who failed to attend school. The district also credited improvements to "a welcoming and engaging school environment." The state education department didn't respond to requests for comment. "Families have to be involved and they have to be partners and they have to take responsibility for getting kids to school, but it's not solely about what families do or don't do," Chang said. "I think it's a mistake to assume it's only one group's responsibility. This is a shared responsibility." 'Broken families, no economic opportunity, no education' Johnson, the district attorney, said his office has stepped up to address a problem that state education leaders have failed to solve. He took particular aim at the state's high-profile education secretary, Ryan Walters, who has become an outspoken champion of conservative education causes. Yet, as far as chronic absenteeism goes, Johnson said the state schools chief "has no interest in talking about" the topic except "when he could get a soundbite on Fox News." The state education department did not respond to Johnson's comments. The 51-year-old father of four also pinned persistent chronic absenteeism on parents-those living in poverty, in particular. Children in his district who most often miss school, he said, are "kind of feral." "My friends generally don't have children that are in crisis because, just economically speaking, they're on the higher end of the spectrum," Johnson told The 74. Johnson said there are about 7,500 K-12 children in the counties that make up his district and estimated that at least 30% contend with "economic poverty, multigenerational drug abuse, domestic abuse in the home, broken families, no economic opportunity, no education." 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David Blatt, the director of research and strategic impact at the nonprofit Oklahoma Appleseed, questioned the accuracy of the data and said it could be an undercount. He said he attended a truancy court case in Ada last year where as many as 30 parents and students made appearances before a judge that lasted just 60 to 90 seconds each. In a report last year, Blatt found that truancy laws were enforced inconsistently across the state and urged policymakers to adopt interventions and supports for families to address chronic absenteeism rather than criminalize them. Blatt backs the legislation to remove chronic absenteeism as a school accountability measure, acknowledging that certain attendance barriers are outside of educators' direct control. But he said Johnson's characterization of the problem is "rather harsh and one-sided." 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San Francisco Chronicle
31 minutes ago
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D-Day veterans return to Normandy to mark 81st anniversary of landings
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Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
A Florida sheriff is arrested in a racketeering investigation. Who is Marcos Lopez?
Florida sheriff Marcos Lopez was arrested June 5 and charged with racketeering in connection with an alleged massive gambling operation and public corruption scheme that generated more than $21 million in profits, according to a release from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office. The Osceola County sheriff was charged with one count of racketeering and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, both second-degree felonies. Gov. Ron DeSantis followed the arrest with an executive order suspending Lopez and replacing him with Christopher Blackmon, the central region chief for the Florida Highway Patrol. Marcos Radame Lopez, 56, was born in Chicago and grew up in central Florida, according to his now-removed biography on the Osceola County Sheriff's Office website. Lopez enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17, his bio said. He served for 22 years on active duty and the reserves, working as a linguist and training in explosive ordinances, counterterrorism, and supervising logistical operations. He supported operation Iraqi freedom, Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom as a law enforcement specialist attached to the Centcom Logistical Support Group Forward, he told He received a degree in Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement in 2003 from Valencia College, according to his LinkedIn account, and joined the sheriff's office the same year. For more than 16 years, Lopez also served as a firearms and defensive tactics instructor while working as an investigator. Since 2019, he has also operated Lo-Jeng Tech, a security consultant business that trains small businesses, churches and nonprofits on how to handle active shooters, cybersecurity and other security matters. After failing to win election in 2016, Lopez was first elected as sheriff in 2020, defeating Luiz "Tony" Fernandez to became the first Hispanic sheriff in the Osceola County and Florida. Lopez was re-elected in 2024, defending his position from Republican challenger Donnie Martinez. During his terms, Lopez started the Real Time Crime Center and added specialty units to the OCSO, including the Tactical Anti-Crime Unit, Osceola County Narcotics Bureau, and a fugitive extradition program with Puerto Rico, according to his bio. He also launched anti-bullying initiatives and the all-female police academy Woman on Watch. Why was a Florida sheriff arrested? What we know about Marcos Lopez, alleged gambling scheme Lopez and the OCSO have been in the spotlight several times in recent years. In December 2024, Lopez pleaded no contest to a civil infraction and agreed to pay a $250 fine for posting a photo of a dead body on his personal Instagram page, FOX 35 Orlando and WFTV reported. The image was of 13-year-old Madeline Soto, who disappeared in February 2024 from her home in Kissimmee. Her body was found days later, and the boyfriend of the girl's mother was charged with her death. After Lopez claimed, on the air, in an interview on a radio station that he didn't post the picture — even though the OCSO had already apologized for it — he was placed on the Brady List, a state list of the local law enforcement officers who may not be suitable as witnesses in criminal cases due to past actions, WFTV reported. As of June 6, Lopez is still listed on the Brady List as having made false statements. Lopez, a Democrat, has claimed the move was politically based. In June 2024, Lopez was accused of making lewd comments about a nude photo of a young female civilian employee in 2022, according to WFTV. Former deputy Samantha Sanchez found the picture on the phone of her then-boyfriend, former deputy Alex Valentin, along with text messages reportedly of Valentin and Lopez exchanging such photos and commenting on them. Sanchez said she took a screenshot of the alleged conversation and later reported it to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement when she was fired in what she said was retaliatory action after she told a female deputy about the conversation. Lopez has denied the accusations and the FDLE declined to investigate after the civilian employee failed to press charges, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Lopez and the OCSO were sued in January on behalf of a motorcyclist who was burned on more than 75% of his body after Osceola County deputies fired a Taser at him while he was filling up his motorcycle, WFTV reported. Lopez and the sheriff's office also came under scrutiny in 2022 after a 20-year-old was shot and killed by deputies, according to local television station WESH. Authorities said the 20-year-old and the group he was with were accused of stealing pizza and Pokémon cards from a Target store in Kissimmee, WESH reported. A grand jury declined to file charges in the case, according to WESH, but criticized the sheriff's office for its handling of the incident. The grand jury recommended policy and procedure changes for shootings involving law enforcement, WESH reported. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida sheriiff charged with racketeering. Who is Marcos Lopez?
