NOLA DA whines about budget cuts after wasting money on witch hunts

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Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro complains that City Council's recent $600,000 cut to his budget cripples his ability to prosecute violent criminals and therefore endangers us all. If Cannizzaro had not spent years deploying his senior staff to tilt at windmills, one might have sympathy for his concern. But recent news betrays a recurring pattern of Cannizzaro choosing to dedicate significant resources to losing battles entirely unconnected to the safety of New Orleanians. Here are five recent examples:

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One: Assigning at least 11 senior prosecutors over two years to prosecute defense investigator, Taryn Blume, because Cannizzaro believed she said something wrong. (Blume allegedly impersonated a police officer during an investigation, although the agency she "misled" had her accurate public defender's business card).

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Two: Making his appeal lawyers defend Alden Morgan's 99-year sentence without parole for armed robbery with arguments the Louisiana Supreme Court characterized as a "waste of taxpayer time."

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Three: Prosecuting Jerome Morgan after his 1994 murder conviction was vacated in 2014 based on evidence making it virtually impossible that Morgan was the shooter at a 1993 Sweet 16 party. Cannizzaro's 15-month attempt to reinstate Morgan's conviction was rejected by every judge on the court of appeal and the Supreme Court. Cannizzaro's subsequent 15-month attempt to re-convict him was also futile, largely because Cannizzaro had, by then, charged the only witnesses against Morgan with perjury.

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Four: Defending Robert Jones' 1996 rape, robbery and murder convictions for 10 years after Jones alerted the DA that his own office's files might corroborate his innocence. The files did, but Cannizzaro's prosecutors apparently never reviewed them and continued defending indefensible convictions.

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Five: Prosecuting Hakim Shabazz and Kevin Johnson -- two gainfully employed, 40-year-old fathers -- for perjury for testifying to undo the wrongful 1994 conviction of Jerome Morgan. Several prosecutors were assigned to drag them to court for two years to face prison time in exchange for their courage. Shabazz and Johnson were found not guilty this past week.

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