Entries tagged with “Caddo Parish

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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Prosecutorial Accountability

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Oct 29, 2015

Amid Threatening Comments by Current DA, Death Penalty Dominates Caddo Parish Prosecutor Election

Capital pun­ish­ment is dom­i­nat­ing the dis­cus­sion in the runoff elec­tion between James E. Stewart, Sr. and Dhu Thompson to suc­ceed act­ing Caddo Parish, Louisiana District Attorney Dale Cox. Cox’s con­tro­ver­sial state­ments about the death penal­ty — includ­ing that the state needs to kill more peo­ple” — have focused nation­al atten­tion on the parish, which ranks among the two per­cent of U.S. coun­ties respon­si­ble for 56 per­cent of the inmates on death row…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Prosecutorial Accountability

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Race

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Nov 17, 2016

Louisiana Supreme Court Orders New Trial for Rodricus Crawford in Controversial Caddo Parish Death Penalty Case

The Louisiana Supreme Court has over­turned the con­vic­tion of Rodricus Crawford (pic­tured) and ordered that he be giv­en a new tri­al in a con­tro­ver­sial death penal­ty case that attract­ed nation­al atten­tion amid evi­dence of race dis­crim­i­na­tion, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al excess, and actual…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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Intellectual Disability

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Prosecutorial Accountability

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Race

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Sep 23, 2016

OUTLIER COUNTIES: Legacy of Racism Persists in Caddo Parish, Which Had Nation’s Second-Highest Number of Lynchings

The death-sen­tenc­ing rate per homi­cide in Caddo Parish, Louisiana was near­ly 8 times greater between 2006 and 2015 than the rest of the state, mak­ing a parish with only 5% of Louisiana’s pop­u­la­tion respon­si­ble for 38% of the death sen­tences imposed statewide. Caddo cur­rent­ly has more peo­ple on death row than any oth­er parish in the…

Policy Issues

Innocence

,

Prosecutorial Accountability

,

Apr 18, 2017

Rodricus Crawford Becomes 158th Death-Row Exoneree

Caddo Parish, Louisiana pros­e­cu­tors for­mal­ly dropped charges against Rodricus Crawford (pic­tured) on April 17, exon­er­at­ing him in a con­tro­ver­sial death penal­ty case that had attract­ed nation­al atten­tion amid evi­dence of race dis­crim­i­na­tion, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al excess, and actu­al inno­cence. He is the 158th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row in the United States since…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Race

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Aug 18, 2015

STUDIES: Racial Bias in Jury Selection

A new study of tri­als in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, revealed that poten­tial jurors who were black were much more like­ly to be struck from juries than non-blacks. The results were con­sis­tent with find­ings from Alabama, North Carolina, and oth­er parts of Louisiana, high­light­ing an issue that will be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court this…