The top priority of this District Attorney’s Office is to increase safety in New Orleans for our families. The people of this city can rest assured that the DA’s Office is doing everything possible to ensure that our neighborhoods are safer and that our streets are rid of those looking to cause harm.
Since Day 1, we have been laser-focused on the prosecution of violent crimes like murders, robberies, rapes, and domestic violence; prioritizing the acceptance of felony cases that cause the greatest injury and others that involve victims and survivors. We purposefully convene the New Orleans Grand Jury each week to secure indictments against the most serious offenders. In partnership with the New Orleans Police Department and other law enforcement agencies, we launched our Serial Crimes Initiative to create a concerted effort to target and get ahead of repeat violent crime in our city. And in August 2021, we launched a Cold Case Unit that is purposed around getting murderers off the streets and bringing healing to families by revisiting past data and information and putting fresh eyes on evidence originally found to be part of these cases.
Essential to our mission of increasing safety is having the personnel necessary to do so. We are proud to have raised pay and provided enhanced training for our prosecutors in order to recruit and retain talented attorneys, and to have doubled the number of Victim/Witness Advocates since DA Williams’ inauguration on January 11, 2021.
COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the criminal legal system. With jury trials halted since March 2020, there was a significant backlog of cases awaiting us when we took office. Since then, however, we have aggressively and strategically addressed this backlog by appropriately diverting cases, securing guilty pleas outside of court, dismissing our minor cases, and relentlessly preparing our major cases for trial to ensure that we were ready when courts resumed normal operations.
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Increasing Safety in Neighborhoods
DA Williams Urges Responsible Gun Ownership for Child Safety, Announces Free Gun Lockboxes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 17, 2023 "DA Williams Urges Responsible Gun Ownership for Child Safety, Announces Free Gun Lockboxes" NEW ORLEANS — November 17, 2023 - In a press conference held yesterday, District Attorney Jason Williams [...]
DA’s Office Special Victims Unit Secures Conviction For 2019 Child Sexual Abuse In Gentilly New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS – Yesterday, the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office (OPDA) Special Victims Unit (SVU) secured a conviction of defendant Charles Banks for child sexual abuse committed in Gentilly New Orleans. OPDA SUV Chief Alicia Bennette and Assistant District Attorney (ADA) [...]
DA’s Office Secures Conviction for 2020 New Year’s Day Manslaughter in Uptown New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS –This week, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) secured the conviction of Jermal Williams stemming from a shooting incident in Uptown New Orleans. Following a three-day jury trial led by OPDA [...]
DA’s Office Secures 40-Year Sentence in Slaying of 75-Old Year Tourist in Uptown New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS – The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) secured a conviction, via guilty plea, of defendant Martin Hurtado for an incident that took place in the 2100 block of St. Charles Avenue [...]
DA Williams Announces Grand Jury Indictment of Former New Orleans Catholic Priest Lawrence Hecker for Rape
NEW ORLEANS – Yesterday, District Attorney Jason Williams announced the Grand Jury indictment of former New Orleans Catholic Priest Lawrence Hecker for sex abuse crimes that occurred from January 1, 1975, to December 31, [...]
DA’s Office Announces Guilty Plea For The Murder Of 18-Year-Old Edna Karr Student-Athlete, Keyron Ross
NEW ORLEANS – The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) secured the conviction via guilty plea of defendant Tyrese Carter for an incident that took place in the 3800 block of Texas Drive in Algiers New [...]
