NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Prosecutors say Kevin Johnson and Hakim Shabazz should be punished for lying — either when their testimony helped convict a man of murder in 1994 or when they changed their stories 20 years later and helped set him free.
Defense attorneys told the judge at their perjury trial on Friday that two were coerced into making the statements that led to conviction of Jerome Morgan, and noted that all involved were teenagers at the time.
Judge Ben Willard heard the case without a jury in a trial that lasted less than two hours. Lawyers said they expect to hear his decision Monday morning.
Morgan was 17 when he was arrested in the death of 16-year-old Clarence Landry at a Sweet 16 party. Prosecutors formally dropped charges against Morgan last year, but only after having indicted Johnson and Shabazz for perjury in 2015.
The perjury case went to trial amid running feuds between District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and city officials. The D.A. has objected to budget cuts, while some council members accuse him of being overly harsh on juvenile defendants in some cases.
Jason Williams is a City Council member, a Cannizzaro critic, and the attorney for Shabazz, who was 17, at the time of the shooting, and was hit in the torso by a bullet at the party.
“He’s a victim,” Williams told reporters as he criticized Cannizzaro for pursuing the perjury case.
Williams said police were desperate to solve the Landry killing when they developed Morgan as a suspect, and pressured the teens to name Morgan as the shooter. Under questioning, a screener for the D.A.’s office acknowledged Friday that the murder case was at first rejected for prosecution in 1994.
Johnson’s attorney, Robert Hjortsberg, said his client, then just 16, initially told police he didn’t know who shot Landry. He said both defendants were courageous for coming forward and risking prosecution to free Morgan.
Assistant District Attorney Fran Bridges repeatedly referred to the teenagers’ sworn testimony implicating Morgan. She said she doesn’t have to prove whether they lied in 1994 or 20 years later - whenever it was, the consequences were serious.
“Real things happen to people when you say that they did something,” Bridges said. “Either somebody will go free that shouldn’t, or somebody will go to jail that shouldn’t.”
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