A Louisiana crime watchdog group is urging state officials to appoint judges rather than have voters elect them because the judges often run unopposed and are not held accountable for their judicial record.
Rafael Goyeneche, president of the nonprofit watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, said that after appointed judges serve a four-year term, voters could then decide whether they keep their seats on the bench.
“That provides more transparency and checks and balances against judges who have not performed to the level that the public expects,” Mr. Goyeneche told WWL-TV in New Orleans.
He said it would curb the problem of judges being too lenient, particularly toward juveniles.
That issue resurfaced after a 17-year-old boy was accused of killing a girl and wounding five other people in last week’s mass shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge.
Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse said the suspect, Markel Lee, has “an extensive criminal history in the juvenile court system” when he announced the arrest on murder charges Friday.
Chief Morse did not say what prior criminal offenses had landed Mr. Lee in court, but the suspect is being charged as an adult. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, blamed judges for last week’s shooting. At the press conference on Mr. Lee’s arrest, he said judges in the state’s urban areas too often behave as “social workers with a gavel” at the expense of the law-abiding public.
“When judges refuse to enforce boundaries or consequences, they’re not rehabilitating anyone. What they’re doing is abandoning young people until a tragedy like this becomes inevitable,” Mr. Landry said. “That’s not justice, that’s negligence that’s masquerading around as mercy.”
He added later the state’s Judiciary Commission, the oversight body that can remove judges for misconduct, has seen members step down due what they said were “lax investigations” of their fellow magistrates.
The governor has been on a quest against judges this year. Mr. Landry opened Louisiana’s legislative session last month by proposing a bill that would let lawmakers remove judges who are too lenient toward criminal offenders.
He said he was inspired to write the bill after the 2024 killing of Jacob Carter of Washington state. Carter was vacationing in New Orleans with his husband when 17-year-old Malik Cornelius fatally shot him during a botched robbery in the French Quarter.
Cornelius, who pleaded guilty last year, was on electronic monitoring at the time of the shooting. He had a stash of drugs and guns when he was arrested.
Mr. Landry said the killer had missed 400 check-ins with authorities while he was under court-appointed surveillance.
The governor said Carter’s family filed complaints against the judges who had allowed Cornelius to run loose, but the Judiciary Commission found insufficient evidence to support their objections.
Mr. Landry’s legislation, Senate Bill 123, was passed by the Senate this month and is being considered in the House. If it secures a two-thirds majority in that chamber, it would go before Louisiana voters in an April 2027 election.
