It was once a poster child for things like wrongful convictions and the carceral state. But the Orleans Parish DA has transformed his office—immediately dismissing over 400 cases that were prosecuted under his predecessor, a majority of which were drug related.
When he ran for DA in 2020, Jason Williams, a former councilmember in New Orleans, pledged to free people from prison. Already 
he “has granted new trials to nearly two dozen people convicted by split juries, announced he would no longer oppose parole applications, dropped his predecessor’s efforts to maintain life without parole sentences for people convicted when they were minors, and moved to secure the release of multiple wrongfully convicted people.
“There are innocent people in jail,” said Williams. “There are people in jail for sentences that are far longer than they should be. … There are people who got convicted without a fair trial.”
Listen as Jason Williams talks with Everyday Injustice about the work he has done and the work that still remains to be done.
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