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
Prosecution Team Secures Conviction Stemming From Aggravated Battery In New Orleans East
NEW ORLEANS – The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) secured the conviction of defendant Kanethra Burnett for an incident that took place in the 8000 block of Arcadia Street in New Orleans East. [...]
DA’s Office Secures Conviction for Attempted Armed Robbery with a Firearm, Felon with a Firearm in Mid-City New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS – Last week, District Attorney Jason Williams’s Office secured the conviction of defendant Leroy Mason for an incident on South Broad Street in November 2022. Led by Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) Alex [...]
DA’s Office Secures Conviction in Attempted First Degree Murder Case
NEW ORLEANS – Last week, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) secured the conviction of defendant Corey Davis for charges stemming from an attempted homicide in January 2022 at the intersection of Decatur [...]
Prosecution Team Secures Third Degree Rape Conviction In 3 Cases; Serial Rapist Sentenced To 10 Years, Lifetime Registration As Sex Offender
NEW ORLEANS – This week, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Division secured the conviction of serial rapist David Releford for 3 counts of Third Degree Rape that took [...]
DA’s Office To Host Drop-In Job Interviews This Upcoming Saturday, Next Saturday
NEW ORLEANS – On Saturday, May 13th and Saturday, May 20th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office will be hosting drop-in job interviews. Interested individuals can walk in, [...]
DA Williams Leads Effort To Improve Existing Court-Ordered Electronic Monitoring Through 5 Point Plan For Increased Supervision, Mandatory Revocation Protocols
NEW ORLEANS – Today, while presenting at the New Orleans City Council Criminal Justice Committee Meeting, DA Williams issued a call for more accountability of court-ordered electronic monitoring protocols through a coordinated 5-point plan. The [...]
