Attorney General Liz Murrill and her legal team are not relenting in their quest to find out if political operatives infiltrated an Orleans Parish grand jury to fuel her recent criminal indictment.
Murrill said she remains unconvinced that the grand jury on its own chose to charge her with 16 counts of public intimidation and malfeasance in office without any improper influence.
Though special prosecutor Laurie White dropped the indictment, one of Murrill’s lawyers last week sued District Attorney Jason Williams and special prosecutor Laurie White for records Murrill hopes will expose a political agent behind the indictment.
And Murrill, the state’s top Republican prosecutor, argued last week that the broad immunity given to the the state’s citizen grand jurors won’t shield them from responsibility for any misconduct.
The focus on the grand jury, including calls by Murrill, Gov. Jeff Landry and others for criminal investigations, has provoked an unprecedented offer of protection from a network of Louisiana defense attorneys.
The Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers announced July 31 that it has set up a hotline to answer questions and provide free legal consultations for members of the grand jury that passed the bombshell July 2 indictment.
The LACDL is a statewide network of private lawyers and public defenders that advocates for effective counsel.
Grand jurors’ identities are protected by the Louisiana Constitution. LACDL opened the hotline to help the anonymous jurors understand their rights if investigators come knocking.
“What I think makes grand jurors unique is that they’re compelled to serve under state law, which means they are doing a civic duty,” said Baton Rouge attorney Jacob Longman, LACDL’s president.
The grand jury that indicted Murrill was convened months earlier to handle various criminal matters in Orleans Parish. It has since disbanded. At least one of its members invoked a rarely used statute to initiate the probe into Murrill. District Attorney Jason Williams recused his office, and Judge Leon Roche appointed White.
“I think the special prosecutor has a role in protecting the grand jury,” said Loyola University law professor Will Snowden, founding director of The Juror Project, an education and advocacy group. “I would also say defense lawyers in this state, we have a role in protecting New Orleanians.”
The indictment relates to letters Murrill sent to several New Orleans officials in May, warning they could lose their positions for opposing a new state law that unified the city’s court clerks. The officials included Williams, Mayor Helena Moreno and five city council members.
Landry called it a “kangaroo grand jury” and swiftly ordered Louisiana State Police to investigate. U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, wrote FBI Director Kash Patel in a July 3 letter, requesting a federal investigation.
White dismissed the charges July 22 under pressure from Williams, Moreno and Murrill’s other purported victims. While Williams has denied involvement, Murrill pledged to “continue to pursue any mechanism, any vehicle , any tool that I have at my disposal to find out what happened.”
“If it turns out that this did just magically happen without anybody being involved in it and nobody targeted me because they were mad at the governor or mad at me…then I accept that,” she said Wednesday outside the federal court building in New Orleans.
“But I don’t believe that that’s true, and I don’t think anybody believes that that’s true.”
Snowden said a juror could’ve been convinced to seek Murrill’s indictment after seeing local officials respond on television to her letters.
“They very well could’ve just initiated this based on the things that they saw in the general public,” he said. “This idea that a grand juror was unduly influenced, I just don’t see anybody that’s an elected official – I just don’t see that happening. Like the risk is too high.”
What Do Grand Juries Do and How Are They Protected?
Grand jurors are sworn to secrecy by Louisiana’s criminal code. They can be held in contempt of court for divulging its details unless a judge permits them to relay perjured testimony or other irregularities.
Louisiana recognizes them as independent officers of the court, likening grand jurors to judicial administrators.
“The law is very, very clear. Grand jurors are special. They are sacrosanct,” Williams said when asked about grand juror protections Thursday. “No one is supposed to know who’s on it or when they’re serving. And these aren’t Jason Williams’ words. These are words that are codified in our law. So any attack on people who involuntarily come to serve on a grand jury is deeply problematic and deeply concerning.”
But grand jurors aren’t above the law. Those that those who accept gifts, are impaired or allow others to unduly influence them can face a $500 fine or up to six months in jail for misdemeanor jury misconduct.
Legal observers said they’ve never seen a case of a grand juror being prosecuted. More common are outside parties trying to pierce the “veil of secrecy” surrounding jurors.
Anyone convicted of jury tampering could face the same prison time as the defendant in the underlying case, up to 99 years in cases of murder and other capital felonies.
Last year, Murrill’s office helped prosecute Travis Layne Jr., a New Iberia man convicted of trying to contact a juror from jail ahead of his 2024 murder trial in Iberia Parish, court records show. He received a 30-year sentence
Yet grand jury secrecy rules could present hurdles for Murrill even in accessing transcripts from the confidential proceedings to prove any tampering.
“I think the AG had a better argument for obtaining the grand jury testimony when there were actual charges pending,” said Keva Landrum, the former criminal court judge and prosecutor who left the bench in 2020 to run for district attorney.
”You have to be very specific in what you’re asking for,” she added. “You can’t just blanketly say, ‘Well, we believe the grand juror acted improperly.’ I would not turn over the transcripts for that.”
Members of the grand jury can call a lawyer LACDL’s Grand Jury Committee from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hotline number is 504-233-7750.