Calvin Duncan, who was wrongfully convicted of murder 40 years ago and sentenced to life in prison, was elected clerk of Orleans Parish Criminal Court Saturday night, handily defeating established incumbent Darren Lombard.
Former ‘prison lawyer’ wins Orleans clerk of court election
Duncan claimed 68% of the vote with all precincts reporting their results. Turnout for the election was 21.5%.
The campaign between two Democrats saw Republican state Attorney General Liz Murrill challenge Duncan’s claim that he had been exonerated. She sent him a letter before the primary election, saying he needed to “cease representing to the public that you were ‘exonerated’ to avoid further action from this office.”
Court records confirm Duncan’s conviction was vacated in 2021.
Lombard also called into question Duncan’s criminal status during public debates and in a lawsuit that accused his opponent of making false claims in violation of state election laws. An Orleans Parish judge denied Lombard’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt Duncan’s campaign advertising.
In addition to his own experience as a defendant, Duncan was a “jailhouse lawyer” while serving time at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, helping other incarcerated people with their post-conviction filings.
After his release, Duncan earned a bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies from Tulane University and received his law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School. He founded the Light of Justice Program, which provides assistance to the incarcerated.
Duncan was given a life sentence for the shooting death of David Yeager, 23, during an Aug. 7, 1981, armed robbery in the Tremé neighborhood. Yeager’s girlfriend, Kristi Emberling, was with him when he was shot and identified Duncan as his killer in March 1982. Police showed her a mugshot of Duncan, who was 18 at the time Yeager was killed, taken when he was 14 years old.
The Innocence Project of New Orleans, now known as Innocence and Justice Louisiana, began representing Duncan in 2004. Its attorneys questioned the accuracy of Emberling’s identification, noting she said she was convinced that Duncan was the shooter only after she saw him on television in handcuffs following his arrest.
The defense team also compelled the release of withheld police documents in New Orleans in Portland, Oregon, where Duncan had moved to join a Job Corps program and was arrested.
The documents revealed discrepancies in the investigation, which was led in Clackemas County by a detective who would later be convicted of illegal wire tapping in a separate case. The same detective had told Duncan he has been identified by his two prominent gold front teeth, which wasn’t true.
Mounting issues with the case led then Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro to vacate Duncan’s murder conviction in 2011 and allow him to plead guilty to manslaughter and attempted armed robbery. Duncan was resentenced to 49 years in prison but released for the time he had served. Cannizzaro, who now leads the criminal division in Murrill’s office, was an assistant DA involved in Duncan’s prosecution in 1985.
Republicans say the current system needs an overhaul
Landry said that by eliminating Duncan’s elected office was about improving “government efficiency” and “cleaning up a system in Orleans Parish that has been plagued by dysfunction and corruption for years.”
Proponents of consolidating the criminal clerk of court with the civil clerk of court say the offices are combined in other parishes. Terminating the criminal clerk of court position would save the state an estimated $27,300, according to the office of the legislative auditor, which added that the costs of combining clerks’ offices were “unknown.”
The bill’s Republican author, Sen. Jay Morris, who represents a district in north Louisiana, acknowledged that once Duncan’s elected position is eliminated, the civil clerk of court might struggle to handle the influx of cases. The solution, he says, is to “hire someone.”
Other New Orleans elected judicial officials whose jobs may be eliminated in the future would be allowed to serve out their terms, but not Duncan.
Morris told lawmakers that the goal is to pass the law in time to prevent Duncan from taking office before the start of his four-year term.
