NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Louisiana district attorney’s decision to withhold requested documents from a defense attorney violates the state’s public records law and endangers the rights of journalists, the average citizen and wrongfully convicted prisoners, attorneys for inmate advocates and news media outlets told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.
A member of the St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s staff countered that the records law does not require that documents be turned over to incarcerated convicts or, by extension, to their lawyers.
Louisiana’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal sided with the prosecutor in the case in a 2-1 decision last year. Attorneys for the Louisiana Press Association, Innocence Project New Orleans and defense attorney James Boren argued against the 3rd Circuit ruling. The Supreme Court justices didn’t indicate when they will rule.
According to Tuesday’s arguments and court briefs, Boren made a written request to the St. Landry prosecutor’s office for any public records related to the 2013 conviction of a state inmate named Stephan Bergeron. The District Attorney’s first response was to ask the nature of Boren’s relationship to Bergeron, and what possible grounds Bergeron might have for appeal.
That response in itself was a violation of the Public Records Act, argued Scott Sternberg, an attorney representing the Louisiana Press Association. The law doesn’t allow the government official to ask why a record has been requested, and allowing such an inquiry could have a “chilling effect” on people’s willingness to seek public records.
Boren responded to the inquiry, even though he wasn’t legally obliged to, according to Sternberg and Emily Maw, of the Innocence Project New Orleans.
After he said he could not determine whether there are grounds for appeal without first being given access to the requested files, he was denied access - also a violation, argued Sternberg, Maw and Jane Hogan, Boren’s attorney.
In briefs, Maw said public records requests have been a factor in nearly three fourths of 48 post-conviction exonerations in Louisiana since 1990.
“If a lawyer’s rights under this law are eroded,” Maw wrote, “there is no doubt that prisoners who could use the Public Records Act to help show that they are innocent will die in prison because of it.”
Alisa Gothreaux, arguing for District Attorney Earl Taylor, argued that the public records act specifically allows denial of records to convicted, incarcerated people. To allow convicts’ attorneys’ access to the records, she said, would be unfair to convicted inmates who don’t have lawyers.
Some of the justices questioned the prosecutors’ interpretation. Justice John Weimer said there is no language in the law allowing denial of records to an inmate’s non-incarcerated representative.
If anyone with no apparent relation to a case can request the records, Chief Justice Bernette Johnson said, “why would we limit Mr. Boren’s access?”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.