Calvin Duncan, who became a lawyer and an advocate for incarcerated people, was recently elected criminal court clerk in New Orleans. Lawmakers are racing to eliminate the role.
Calvin Duncan started learning the law as a matter of necessity, he said. He was serving a life sentence for murder and wanted to prove his innocence.
He not only regained his freedom, but helped many other incarcerated people do the same. He graduated from law school at age 60. And last November, he was elected to the job of criminal court clerk in New Orleans, ousting an incumbent after drawing an unusual level of attention to a race that rarely attracts any.
But Mr. Duncan may never get to serve. State lawmakers in Louisiana are racing to abolish the office altogether before he assumes it on May 4.
Republican officials in Louisiana want to eliminate the criminal court clerk job as part of a more sweeping effort to reshape the judicial system in New Orleans, which detractors have long derided as costly and inefficient. The plan, they say, would save money by cutting judges and consolidating court functions.
But while Republicans have talked in the past about combining the city’s criminal and civil courts, it became a priority only after Mr. Duncan was elected.
Under the proposal, the criminal court clerk’s responsibilities — including maintaining an ever-expanding trove of case records and evidence, as well as running elections — would be reassigned to the city’s elected civil clerk.