Closing Argument: It’s time to flip the bench in New Orleans.
For far too long in courtrooms throughout New Orleans, we have witnessed rampant injustice and inequality. The cruelty of our mass punishment system has been on full display, revealing that it can affect so many of us at any time. Every day, the hurt, pain, and trauma the criminal legal system inflicts can spread far beyond the individual impacted in a given case, to an entire family and even throughout the community.
We have dealt with frequent lawsuits over the unconstitutional practices of our courts, corruption in our courts, and even nepotism in our courts. The default of our elected officials has been to turn a blind eye to misconduct and unethical behavior by those in power while never hesitating to punish the poorest and most vulnerable among us.
But a group of judges committed to a different approach can begin to teach all of New Orleans that our courts can be a place where fairness and equality for all can reign. This is why with the election just one day away, we are urging your support for judicial candidates who will bring meaningful change to New Orleans:
- Graham Bosworth, Criminal Court Section D, #87
- Derwyn Bunton, Criminal Court Section E, #89
- Nandi Campbell, Criminal Court Section G, #92
- Angel Harris, Criminal Court Section L, #97
- Steve Singer, Magistrate Judge, #100
- Teneé Felix, Juvenile Court Section F, #111
- Meg Garvey, Municipal Court, #113
We are confident these seven people will help end the punishment of poverty, the corruption, and the mass punishment in our courts because they have each spent their career doing just that. If we want different results from our criminal legal system, we can begin by electing better judges.
Each of the seven candidates — current and former public defenders and civil rights attorneys — have the background, experience, and commitment to be the type of judge we know will be willing to do what is right and who will use their tremendous power as judges to help fix our broken system.
Too often when we talk about how to bring humanity, fairness, and accountability to the criminal legal system, we focus on the police, prosecutors, and legislators but forget about judges. But judges have the ability to bring to New Orleans so many of the reforms we all want so badly.
We want to end money bail and stop the needless pretrial incarceration of people presumed innocent. We want to stop seeing people already living in poverty forced to pay fines and fees they cannot afford for minor and misdemeanor offenses that pose no risk whatsoever to public safety. We want to end the school to prison pipeline and stop seeing so many of our children further traumatized by being punished as if they were adults. We want to end mass incarceration and mass punishment. And we want a system that holds those in power accountable and no longer turns a blind eye to misconduct and unethical behavior.
Each of these seven candidates will help usher in these reforms. We have a unique opportunity to flip the bench this election and remake how our local courts operate by electing these seven candidates who have devoted their careers to fighting for everyone to be treated humanely and justly, and to seeking solutions other than punishment and incarceration.
They each know that judges cannot continue to be cogs in the mass punishment machine if we are ever to have a system that truly provides equal justice for all. For far too long, judges at all levels either remained silent or actively perpetuated a system that allowed injustices to occur in case after case, impacting so many people’s lives. We are confident that if we elect these seven candidates, we can have a system where judges step in when they see racism and injustice and do what is right. And by electing each of these seven, we can send a message to every other judge in this city that the people of New Orleans are demanding more justice and more equality from everyone involved in the criminal justice system.
We all want to live in safe communities, but for decades we have been told that the only response was tough on crime, harsh punishments, and lengthy sentences. We have elected the same judges over and over to oversee our courts. It has not worked and these seven candidates have spent their careers fighting for a better, more just way, and now want to bring their commitment to our courts. Let’s help them get there.
Find your polling location here
Additional reading about the judicial elections:
- Antigravity Magazine Voting Guide
- Big Easy Magazine Voting Guide
- DSA New Orleans Voting Guide
- Maura Ewing, “A Down-Ballot Revolution Is Brewing in New Orleans,” Slate (Oct. 16, 2020).
- Twitter thread with additional reading about reach race
