Louisiana AG Murrill Indicted Over New Orleans Court Fight
A New Orleans grand jury has indicted Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on 16 counts of intimidation and malfeasance, escalating a bitter political battle between the state’s Republican leadership and the Democratic-controlled city over the future of the local court system. The Louisiana Supreme Court granted an emergency stay on July 3, temporarily blocking Murrill’s arrest and signaling she is “likely to succeed on the merits” of having the case dismissed.
The Indictment
The charges, handed up by an Orleans Parish grand jury on July 2, stem from letters Murrill sent in May to New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno and city council members, warning they could lose their offices under state “usurper” laws for supporting a special election related to a court clerk position. According to NBC News, Judge Leon Roche issued an arrest warrant with bond set at $400,000.
Murrill called the case against her “retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional,” vowing she would “not back down” and would “continue enforcing the law, fighting corruption, and doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do.”
Supreme Court Intervention
Just one day after the indictment, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued an emergency stay halting the criminal case. Justice Jay McCallum, writing for the majority, found “extraordinary procedural defects and improprieties,” as the Associated Press reported. The court noted that the intimidation statute requires threats of “bodily harm or death” — while Murrill’s letters were written legal warnings.
The court also flagged likely conflicts of interest involving special prosecutor Laurie White, who previously represented Calvin Duncan — the exoneree at the center of the dispute — and is being defended by Murrill’s office against a sexual harassment lawsuit. The stay was supported by all four Republican justices and one Democrat, with the court’s other Democrat and an independent dissenting.
The Dispute Behind the Charges
At the heart of the case is Senate Bill 256, which abolished the separately elected Orleans Parish Criminal Court clerk position and consolidated it with the Civil District Court clerk. Republicans cited government efficiency; Democrats called it a power grab targeting a Black-majority city.
The office had been won in November 2025 by Calvin Duncan, an exoneree who spent more than 28 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Duncan won the election with 68% of the vote, but GOP lawmakers raced to eliminate the office before he could take full control. On June 1, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to uphold the abolition of Duncan’s office.
Duncan’s journey from wrongfully convicted prisoner to elected official is remarkable. A jailhouse lawyer who later graduated from law school, he was the driving force behind the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended nonunanimous jury convictions. After a judge vacated his sentence in 2021, he was exonerated and listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.
Political Fallout
Gov. Jeff Landry called the grand jury a “kangaroo court” and promised to pardon Murrill if convicted. He also ordered state police to investigate what he called “alleged improprieties” of the grand jury. “The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we will not have any of that!” Landry wrote on X.
Special prosecutor White responded to Landry’s pardon promise by telling the Shreveport Times: “Good; let’s get her convicted and then he can pardon her.”
The Republican Attorneys General Association called the indictment “as outrageous as it is dangerous,” arguing Murrill was simply “issuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law” as part of her official duties.
Mayor Moreno declined to directly address the allegations, saying her focus “remains on fulfilling the responsibilities the people of New Orleans elected me to carry out.”
What Comes Next
The stay temporarily halts proceedings, but the case has not been dismissed. Murrill is expected to seek to quash the indictment entirely. The Supreme Court’s conflict-of-interest concerns may lead to White’s replacement as special prosecutor. Meanwhile, Duncan’s federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in April, continues through the courts — its outcome could reshape the broader dispute.
This case has also drawn national attention to Murrill, who has built a profile defending Louisiana’s abortion ban, Ten Commandments displays, and transgender athlete restrictions. The indictment and its resolution could affect her potential gubernatorial ambitions.
For now, the Louisiana Supreme Court has pressed pause on what Justice McCallum described as an indictment that “appears to turn the law on its head” — but the underlying battle over the balance of power between state and local government, and the fate of an elected office won by an exoneree, remains far from resolved.