Newell: The Orleans Parish DA’s office is conducting ‘fake trials’ with no evidence and no witnesses to churn out not-guilty verdicts

Something fishy is going on at the Criminal District Court. That’s an understatement; something is deeply wrong, and it carries a huge public safety risk. From everything I’ve heard, the most accurate representation of what’s happening in our court system is that we’re experiencing a complete bastardization of the notions of fairness and justice.

I spoke about this issue recently with Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission (MCC), about a slew of cases in particular sections of the courts that were yielding a high number of non-guilty verdicts.

Goyenehce’s findings were disturbing. To expand on these findings, I spoke with Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue, former Orleans Parish prosecutor and founder of watchdog group Bayou Mama Bears…

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