On recent FBI wiretaps, agents can hear criminal suspects muttering about "misdemeanor murders," code for doing hardly any time at all for the worst crime on the books.
On street corners and in the grungy holding tanks at parish prison, they have another name for it: "701," shorthand for Article 701 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure. It states that no one can be held longer than 60 days on a felony arrest without an indictment.
Sometimes a 701 release merely eliminates a bond posted by a suspect in order to remain at liberty pending a trial. But in other cases, the 701 springs a murder suspect from jail because prosecutors have failed to meet the 60-day deadline, and that's been happening with astonishing frequency -- a tenfold increase -- in the widely criticized New Orleans criminal justice system since Hurricane Katrina.
The 701 list for 2005 includes Dquane Morgan, 20, booked with the second-degree murder of Ryan Crooks, 17, shot down in a hallway at the St. Bernard public housing complex June 2, 2005.
Three days later, Morgan was arrested. Sixty days after that, he walked free on a 701 release, leaving the case cold and now closed. The reason, prosecutors noted for the record, was that they never received a police report within the 60-day period. That's the same reason the other seven murder cases from the same seven-month stretch in 2005 tanked.
Jump to July 2006. The two men accused of trying to kill police officer Kevin Thomas in Algiers during a post-Katrina looting spree were released from jail after almost 10 months in jail. Prosecutors say they knew about the case all along but couldn't make a case given the deficiencies of the post-Katrina era.
But by the time District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office finally charged Vincent Walker, 44, and Jimil Joyner, 24, with attempted first-degree murder -- a week ago -- both suspects were on the loose.
Now this just made my skin crawl as I read it and remembered how Jordan got hammered at the crime rally along with Nagin and Reilly. This was just crazy to be reading after seeing all those people come together and be united. Then as the artical goes on, its gets really messed up!
In the eight months before the hurricane, the city released 187 people on a 701, including eight murder suspects, prosecutors' records show. In 2006, the number of releases soared to about 3,000. And last month alone, 580 people escaped legal custody of either jail or a bond obligation only because prosecutors couldn't pull together a case ahead of the deadline imposed by law.
"That's 580 people," said Dalton Savwoir, spokesman for Jordan's office, when asked to repeat the figure for clarity.
Charges against the 580 included 457 felony charges. Of the felony lot, 220 people physically walked out of jail, while the rest were out on bond. Savwoir estimated that "90 percent" of the 701 releases are related to narcotics, but he said he didn't have a list of names of the defendants.
So last night, I remembered to grab a Houma Daily Courier while headed to work. In this one, I started to read about this monster that is charged with the execution style killing of two females while robbing a video poker casino.
Nearly a year after he was accused of killing two women in a March robbery of a truck-stop casino, a Houma man received a July trial date during a brief court hearing Wednesday.
Romalis Gordon, 35, faces a tentative trial date of July 16, though that date also could change as the case progresses.
Gordon was arrested less than 24 hours after the bodies of 64-year-old security guard Brenda Roberson and 29-year-old manager Schaeffer Francis were found shot execution-style in Lucky’s Truck Stop Casino on the morning of March 3, authorities said. Gordon, of 321 St. Francis St., was recorded on surveillance video during the robbery and identified by casino employees as a regular patron, authorities said.
As the artical gets further, it explains that the private lawyer that was hired for the defense was trying to get another lawyer from the public defenders office which was denied. Now comes the funny part. The prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and for that to happen, it must be shown that the defendant is not insane or mentally retarded. The judge then sets a tenative motion date to hear the results and the lawyer protests the date. The judge then says something that blew my mind. I was reminded of the night before and what I had read about the 701's.
Prosecutors have filed notice that they intend to seek the death penalty against Gordon, but they will only be able to do so if the court rules Gordon both sane and mentally competent. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional to put to death either insane or mentally retarded defendants.
The state will pay for experts to examine Gordon in both regards, the judge ruled, and tentatively set a motion date to hear the results for April 11. Pastor protested the date, saying he is set to defend a murder trial in New Orleans at the same time.
"I’m aware that they are scheduling a lot of things, but I’m not aware they’re trying a lot of things," Walker replied.
The April date will stand, Walker said, unless it becomes evident that Pastor’s New Orleans case really is going to trial at that time. In that case, the motion date will be rescheduled.
Is it just me, or did District Judge John R. Walker bitch slap Eddie Jordan across parish lines?
4 comments:
Judge Walker sounds like he's got some experience with these slippery lawyer types (they're all slippery). Man, it sounds like somebody has to get in there and clean up the States Attorneys team. I see this all the time - no system. They think they have a procedure and they do, but they ain't got no system. It used to raise the hair on my arms to go through a process documenting what happens next. Things wander off into little circles and there is no accountability. Sounds like the Bush admin too.
donnie...
Sorry for going off topic.
garry....
You really didn't answer my question about if you know any National Guardsmen who carried out illegal orders and if you reported them or not.
It was obvious that you didn't read the whole story as it clearly states that the Oklahoma Army National Guard carried out illegal orders. They went house to house to confiscate the legally owned weapons.
Perhaps you should read it again as I will repost the link for you.
It doesn't really matter who told them too confiscate legally owned weapons, what matters is that the orders they received were illegal and they still carried them out.
So do you stand with the military carrying out illegal orders or do you stand with the Constitution?
Re-read the link below and reply please.
Military follows illegal orders
We all await your reply.
God Bless.
Did you see this in today's TP:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1171610865303630.xml&coll=1
We have to get Jordan out somehow!!
There's a petition started by an NOPD cop demanding his resignation....some think petitions are a waste of time but at least it sends a message. Nola citizens HAVE to step up and demand accountablility and keep stepping and stepping and stepping for as long as it takes!
TM,
I had to read it more than once when I saw what the judge said. Wow, he sounds like he's not impressed with what is going on across parish lines. I wonder if the judge is thinking what everyone else is. If it was not for the inept actions of the idiots in LaFourche parish, Ronald Dominique would not have been able to go on and rape and murder 23 people.
Now you see all the 701's under the inept leadership of Jordan and you wonder when the next victim is dead becase of his inactions. It's just sick! Jordan does need to go. It does no good for the cops to bring them in if Jordan just lets them go.
Post a Comment