Special prosecutor Laurie White dismissed all felony criminal charges against Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Wednesday, ending a controversial case that had pitted the state's top law enforcement officer against New Orleans Democratic officials over a Republican-backed court reform.
The dismissal came one day after New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams, Democratic Mayor Helena Moreno and five City Council members sent a letter urging White to drop the case. Orleans Parish online court records show White submitted the letters from the elected city officials to a judge before dismissing each count. The case was then ordered closed.
"What I did was not a crime, it was never a crime," Murrill said. "I think this was a malicious prosecution."
The Indictment and Swift Reversal
Murrill had been indicted on July 2 on accusations of threatening the jobs of New Orleans officials who fought a Republican-led overhaul of courts in the heavily Democratic city. The initial 16-count indictment accused Murrill, the state's first female attorney general, of intimidation and malfeasance.
The case was put on hold almost immediately after the indictment, when the Louisiana Supreme Court said the local court and special prosecutor didn't follow procedures surrounding the indictment. That procedural failure raised questions about whether the prosecution had been properly authorized from the start.
White said in a prepared statement that she performed her lawful duty as a special prosecutor and noted that a grand jury brought the indictment. She also criticized what she described as interference in the case but didn't go into detail. "Extraordinary interference in this situation has been truly unfortunate, and we should all hope that it doesn't set a precedent," White said. Reached by phone later in the day, White declined further comment.
The Court Reform Dispute
For months, political tensions intensified between Louisiana Republicans and New Orleans officials over a new law that abolished a court clerk office won by an exoneree, Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly three decades in prison. The change consolidated that job with another clerk's office, which Republican supporters said would make the local judicial system more efficient. New Orleans leaders opposed the change.
In May, the City Council set a special election that would have given Duncan a chance to win the newly combined job. Murrill responded by warning local officials in letters that they could lose their offices for violating state "usurper" laws, which forbid support for an unauthorized officeholder.
Moreno was among those who accused the state's top law enforcement official in May of making threats against public officials. In their Tuesday letter, the mayor and City Council members said they were not intimidated by Murrill's previous letters. "While the correspondence at issue contained threatening language directed toward public officials, we never believed those threats could lawfully or practically be carried out. We continue serving the people of New Orleans without hesitation," the mayor and council members wrote.
Republican Response
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry had promised a swift pardon, saying Murrill wouldn't have her reputation tarnished by an "Orleans Kangaroo court." Appearing with Murrill at a news conference on the state's preparations for Tropical Storm Bertha, Landry said he would welcome state and federal investigations into how and why Murrill was indicted. "I think the feds need to come in," Landry said.
Murrill said she had merely advised city officials of what the law was and that they had broken it. "I didn't write that law. The Legislature wrote that law. I just explained it to them." Murrill called the indictment a threat of extortion and public intimidation, "to put me in jail for telling them that I'm going to carry out my official duties."
Why This Matters:
The rapid collapse of criminal charges against Louisiana's attorney general raises serious questions about prosecutorial overreach and the politicization of law enforcement. Murrill's core defense — that she was simply advising local officials about existing state law — went unchallenged in court because the case never proceeded past the Louisiana Supreme Court's finding of procedural irregularities. The fact that New Orleans Democratic officials themselves ultimately asked for charges to be dropped suggests the prosecution may have been legally untenable from the start. Gov. Landry's call for federal investigation reflects Republican concerns that local prosecutors in heavily Democratic jurisdictions may use criminal charges as political weapons against state officials enforcing duly enacted laws. The underlying dispute over court consolidation, which the legislature passed to improve efficiency, remains unresolved. Whether state officials can enforce legislative reforms against local resistance without facing criminal prosecution is now a question with broader implications for governance in Louisiana.