Louisiana Voice

Lo and behold, Jeff Landry puts his foot in his mouth again on the day LouisianaVoice publishes my first contribution to the blog. I couldn’t let that pass without comment.

Landry was speaking earlier last week in an exclusive interview conducted over the phone with sports columnist Jeff Duncan. Landry again made a public display of his ignorance of the issues or at least his willingness to be ignorant of the issues. But his greatest ignorance is he seems to be oblivious that a sitting governor should not be involved in hiring or firing coaches at LSU. He obviously thinks of LSU athletics as his personal brand. In his comments he used “we” and “our” a lot. He bragged about trading texts with Lane Kiffin during spring practice. He didn’t say a word about coaches’ salaries or the Athletic Directors who have to be fired for negotiating such bad deals but he was quite open about being close to Will Wade and being “irritated” Wade wasn’t hired last year and that’s why there’s a “big change in leadership over there.”

Landry also spoke about the hiring of Kiffin, the Saints, and other sports related issues. But it was his comments on the current state of college athletics that irritated me most of all. A governor should know better. Unless it’s his intent to obfuscate.

Among his many problem comments was this gem, “Right now, the only focus in college sports is a loyalty to Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill, rather than the loyalty to the teammates and to the coaches and to the programs. But I didn’t get to write those rules — I had to play by those particular rules. And the only way to get Lane Kiffin was to do what we did. I didn’t like it. I don’t think it was fair to his players. It wasn’t fair to him, but hell… Again, Congress needs to get off their tail and fix this thing.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. I addressed the issue of “greed” in my post which Landry, an attorney, should have some grasp of. He also invokes the old trope of “loyalty” which doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t a two-way street. Then he says he didn’t write the rules, but there are no rules and that’s the problem. The NCAA cannot enforce rules limiting or prohibiting an athlete’s opportunity to earn money at the school of his choice because they are not exempt from antitrust law. And there were certainly other hiring timelines for Kiffin but they would have come at the expense of LSU so the “we had no choice” excuse is invoked since principles aren’t a real thing anyway. Finally, Landry caps it all off with “Congress needs to get off their tail and fix this thing.” The NCAA could “fix this thing” right now if it wanted to. Congress wouldn’t have to do a thing. All the NCAA would have to do is reorganize into enough divisions that strict rules could apply for each division and each division only. That would probably get them the antitrust exemption they need to enforce regulations. But as it has been 12 years since the NCAA has known that and has done nothing. I doubt the NCAA has any desire to “fix this thing.” But Congress getting involved is “a” solution, certainly not the best or even a desired solution. Once something becomes “the law” then you are bound by it. I distrust Congress to make a law that binds college athletics and won’t have some unintended and negative consequence. Personally, I believe breaking away from the NCAA is the only workable solution but I understand that’s both controversial and debatable.

Landry isn’t alone in his ignorance of the problem, on college athletics or any number of other issues. Nor I suppose is it surprising someone out of their depth would nevertheless be elected to higher office. But it is still disappointing when the governor of your state insists on getting involved with your favorite teams, because he can, even though he can’t be bothered to understand the current issues. It’s bad enough Landry is hiring and firing coaches and administrators without also contributing to the misinformation running rampant concerning college athletics.

But maybe it’s just a sign of the times. This isn’t just a problem with the current state of college athletics. Misinformation and the willingness to believe it – and repeat it – is running rampant everywhere. Nothing can be taken at face value anymore. Knowing the facts requires a little more effort than turning on the evening news. If you or I won’t put in the effort that’s lazy. But when leaders won’t put in the effort that’s dangerous. We should all pay more attention to the danger of intellectual laziness in the people we elect.

The full text of Duncan’s interview with Landry can be found here:

The late comedian Brother Dave Gardner once said (in jest, it’s presumed), “If a man’s down, kick him. If he survives it, he has a chance to rise above it.”

A corollary to that might be the expression no good deed goes unpunished.

And you couldn’t blame Calvin Duncan if he felt a little put upon about now.

Calvin Duncan is one of those featured in my book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana.

You see, Duncan was convicted in January 1985 of the first-degree murder of David Yeager during an armed robbery more than three years earlier.

The only thing was, he was innocent. Then Assistant District Attorney (later the Orleans Parish district attorney) Leon Cannizzaro suppressed exculpatory evidence (even lied about it), a hostile judge erected obstacles for Duncan’s defense counsel, refusing Duncan permission to examine a supplemental report by an Oregon police officer who’d outright lied to Duncan during questioning following his arrest in that state and six months later pled guilty himself to illegal wiretapping.

On Feb. 2, 1984, assistant prosecutor Bruce Whittaker wrote that there were problems with the Duncan case. He recommended that prosecutors attempt to cut a deal and convince Duncan to plead guilty to second-degree murder. Despite the doubts and because of the withholding of evidence that would’ve proved helpful to him, he was convicted of first-degree murder.

It wasn’t until January 2011, after spending nearly 30 years in prison for a crime he never committed, he was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and attempted armed robbery in order to gain his release for time served. That’s called an Alford, or “best interest” plea and is nothing more than a process by which to protect prosecutors from legal liability because an exonerated defendant is not eligible to collect damages unless he is granted a full declaration of innocence.

But Duncan was that rare individual who, even though incarcerated, worked to better himself and finally, in 2018, he graduated from Tulane University. He then continued with his education, attending the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore.

But there was a hitch. Because of his conviction, he was not allowed to be admitted to the bar after his graduation from law school. Another hitch, this one in his favor: he had been convicted by a non-unanimous vote of the jury. After finally obtaining his freedom and a law degree, he began the fight to clear his name and to help Louisiana become one of the last state abolish non-unanimous jury decisions (Oregon was the only other one that recognized non-unanimous verdicts).

He, along with Southern University law professor Angela A. Allen Bell, played a critical role in assisting attorneys to gather evidence and frame arguments for a challenge to Louisiana’s use of non-unanimous juries. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 barred such verdicts.

So, armed with an exoneration for having lost three decades of his life and with a law degree in hand, he launched the next phase of his life: he ran for and was elected to the office of clerk of the Orleans Parish Criminal Court, vowing to reform the justice system, using his own experience as the basis for his efforts.

He won that race last November with an astounded 68 percent of the vote.

Then came the Louisiana Repugnantcan Party to RIP AWAY any vestige of decency and human kindness, characteristics for which the party, on both the state and national level, is becoming infamous for its dearth.

The Louisiana State Senate on Wednesday VOTED 25-11, with three members taking a walk, to  pass Senate Bill 258 by State Sen. Jay Morris (R-West Monroe), which has the effect of ripping from Duncan his duly-elected office by abolishing the office as part of a proposed streamlining of the New Orleans judiciary.

(It’s somewhat curious as to what a legislator from West Monroe would know about the New Orleans courts, some 300 miles away.)

The senate even defeated an AMENDMENT by Sen. Royce Duplessis (D-New Orleans) by a nearly identical vote (24-12) that would have allowed Duncan to serve his term. You can see that vote HERE.

No one is saying the Orleans judiciary couldn’t use some restructuring, but it’s not just in Orleans Parish. Several stories have been posted by LouisianaVoice about judicial misconduct in Monroe, Shreveport, Alexandria, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, Covington and Houma, as well as Orleans, and ineptness and corruption literally abound in district attorney offices throughout the state so, to home in on Orleans to the exclusion of every other judicial district in the state is disingenuous at best and outright deceptive at worst.

Duncan hasn’t even been sworn in yet. That ceremony is scheduled for May 4 but the Repugnantcan establishment in Louisiana just could not wait to extract their pound of flesh.

Duncan might be excused for believing that he’s being retaliated against by state officials who having long denied his innocence, are somewhat pissed at being shown the error of their ways.

Repugnantcans sniff that it isn’t personal and that the move is simply a step toward government efficiency.

Seems like we’ve heard that somewhere before—and it didn’t turn out too well then, either.

Gov. Squeaky Toy Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill, aka Hand Puppet, point to Duncan’s having accepted the 2011 plea deal for manslaughter and armed robbery as if any man alive would not grasp at a straw like an Alford Plea that might free him after three decades in prison. Given only the choice of remaining in prison for the rest of your life or walking free in exchange for pleading guilty to a lesser charge, it’s a no-brainer.

“The Attorney General made it clear during the election that if I continued to accurately speak about my innocence and exoneration that I would face consequences from her office,” Duncan told The Associated Press. “We are seeing those consequences today.”

Such is the Repugnantcan take on freedom of speech.

Please don’t take this as badgering or begging, because the last thing I want is to appear like some despicable televangelist trying to convince viewers that he/she will receive a blessing for sending their last dime to him. That’s just morally wrong.

But what I will do is simply remind you that our Spring fundraiser is in process and IF YOU CAN DO SO, your contribution to dedicated journalism would be appreciated. I’m fully aware there are other concerns far more deserving of your assistance than I. (Your local food pantry comes to mind. So do other charities.) But if it’s feasible and practicable in the wake of skyrocketing prices on everything, any contribtution would held and would be so much appreciated.

And anyone contributing $50 or more will receive a signed copy of my upcoming book, The Dinosaur Club–a historical novel about a group of retired newspaper reporters to undertake one last assignment to take down a child sex trafficking operation. In addition to the book’s fictional plot, it also contains many, many actual facts about child sex trafficking by churcn and religious leaders, police, judges, foster homes and politicians. At any given time, there are as many as 600,000 children being trafficked worldwide, not only for sexual purposes, but for labor, drug smuggling and other activities. And one of the main arteries for child sex trafficking in the U.S. is the I-10 corridor between New Orleans and Houston.

Click on the yellow “KEEP US INDEPENDENT” icon to the right of this post and follow the instructions to make a ONE-TIME payment by credit card.

You would think that with all the nut cases running around out there, a person would think twice before making an overt threat against a school.

But you’d be vastly overrating the intelligence of those ass-hats who are prone to put mouths in motion before having their minds in gear.

Some idiot forced a lockdown at Live Oak High School this morning because (apparently) he had nothing better to do than to shoot off his mouth by threatening to come onto campus—though thankfully, it appears it was an empty threat.

Nevertheless, it forced the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and the school to take the threat seriously and to put the school into lockdown.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the LOHS campus is on lockdown,” a blast text to parents said. “All students are safe and in a classroom. Parents will be notified when the lockdown has been lifted,” the text said.

A follow-up text said, “We are continuing in lockdown while the LPSO (Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office) conducts a full sweep. There is NO evidence of a credible threat but we continue to take it very seriously…All students continue to be safe and locked down in classrooms.”

I’m at a loss to try and understand the mentality of some ass-clown doing this. Whether credible or not, this is indicative of some troglodyte mindset, an action of some mentally deranged individual who apparently believes the world revolves around him.

But I have a news flash for this person: You are not important enough nor are you even remotely entitled to disrupt an entire school over your petty grievance, whatever it might be.

(Editor’s note: Paul Spillman is a U.S. Navy verteran who has authored the following guest column. He is a resident of St. Francisville)

To the casual fan it may seem as though college athletics has succumbed to greed and selfishness now that athletes sign name, image, and likeness deals and are even being paid by the schools they attend. The headlines invoke the end of an era – college athletes not playing for love of the game or good ol’ State U. just for whoever will pay them the most. But that view is a result of the all-encompassing political climate we currently live in, a doom-and-gloom environment of both real and imagined horrors. College sports is not nearly so desperate or so difficult to address. But no problem can be addressed or resolved if it cannot be accurately stated. The biggest impediment to resolution so far is that so few people can accurately state the problem.

This current wild, wild west era of college sports began with a 2014 Supreme Court ruling in favor of former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon who sued the NCAA for denying him the right to earn money from his name, image, or likeness while the NCAA profited by selling those rights to EA Sports. This ruling opened the door for athletes to be compensated for the use of their name, image, or likeness and effectively ended the NCAA’s definition of “amateurism.” That ruling was followed by a 2021 decision in the case of former West Virginia running back Shawne Alston who challenged the NCAA’s right to deny education related benefits and privileges afforded any other student by withholding athletic eligibility. In a truly remarkable 9-0 decision the Supreme Court found the NCAA in violation of antitrust law – remarkable for the unanimous ruling. How settled must an issue be for all nine justices on today’s Court to agree? This is a crucial point. All nine justices agreed the NCAA was in violation of antitrust law.  In a concurring opinion Justice Kavanaugh wrote the “NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America,” further commenting that price-fixing labor while generating billions in revenue is unjustifiable under antitrust law. The overriding issue forcing change is that the NCAA clung to its outdated definition of “amateurism” instead of adapting to the 21^st century. It is not athletes, agents, or greed that created the current circus. It was a governing body failing to govern, leadership failing to lead.

The lack of response from the NCAA is the very thing which created the current state of affairs. The NCAA took no action following the O’Bannon ruling leaving lawmakers in all fifty states on edge over the fallout of that ruling. Finally, California became tired of waiting and passed NIL legislation in 2019. Thirty-one states have followed. Perhaps that was the unspoken purpose of the NCAA’s failure to act because the only action it has taken is to go hat-in-hand to Congress begging for an antitrust exemption in the form of legislation that solves all their problems for them and one of their main arguments is to point to all the different state regulations regarding NIL. Since the Alston ruling the NCAA has lost virtually every case brought to court on the basis of violating antitrust law. And in the absence of a governing body to set and enforce rules in compliance with the law who is surprised that in free-market-get-it-while-you-can America the circus came to town?

It is possible Congress can write legislation that grants the NCAA an antitrust exemption. Courts will uphold legislation that is specific and narrowly tailored, but are less willing to support broad or blanket legislation with a one-size-fits-all law. Currently there are several pieces of legislation in Congress attempting to address the issues either all or in part. The SCORE Act, for example, attempts the specificity needed for an antitrust exemption but would likely require the NCAA to reorganize its divisions. On the other hand, legislation introduced by Senator and former coach Tommy Tuberville grants five years of eligibility over a five-year period with one transfer allowed without penalty. That is basically the full wording of the bill. Senator Tuberville is not known for loquaciousness. That legislation should it pass would certainly be challenged as too broad to allow wholesale application for an antitrust exemption.

But again, the NCAA itself is the larger part of the problem. The NCAA is the governing body for more than 1150 colleges and universities. Division 1 has just over 350 schools that range from a university such as Ohio State with athletic department revenue of around $170 million and fielding teams in 36 sports involving more than 1,000 athletes, to a school such as Mount St. Mary’s with an athletic revenue less than $14 million for 708 athletes comprising 22 teams, if you count flag football and bowling. And therein lies the problem. Ohio State and Mount St. Mary’s are not the same kind of athletic entity. To get legislation specifically tailored enough for an antitrust exemption would likely require acknowledging the differences between two such schools and placing them in different divisions. That would mean an end to March Madness – the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments – as well as the post season for almost every other sport. The SCORE act for example would apply to schools with athletic revenue of greater than $20 million – so it would apply to Ohio State but not to Mount St. Mary’s. This would require the restructuring of NCAA divisions which no one is eager to do. It’s why the NCAA has dragged its feet. It’s why they want a broad antitrust exemption from Congress. It’s why they are doing their best to drag us back to 1985 and keep us there. Because no one wants to be the person who makes the call that ends March Madness as we know it.

But if one thing is certain it’s that change is inevitable. One can either roll with it or get rolled over by it. Those are the only two choices. If the NCAA refuses to reorganize it likely cannot get a broad antitrust exemption. If Congress writes legislation specific enough for an antitrust exemption it will likely not be broad enough for the current division structure of the NCAA. Congress could legislate college sports to death but no one in their right mind should want Congress involved any more than it has to be, if at all. If Congress starts legislating college sports it will not stop with NIL, revenue share, and transfer portal. Realignment, scheduling, and playoff selection would all soon follow and all legislation would have other unrelated bills attached and carry the force of law. Truly that would be the end of college sports.

Another option is for schools that wish to participate in the modern era of college sports to break away from the NCAA and form a separate umbrella organization for its member schools with rules specific enough to members to grant the antitrust exemption needed to regulate and enforce rules concerning eligibility, transfer, compensation, etc. This would also mean the end of current post-season tournaments.

So, yes, it’s a mess and the future course is still undetermined. But for readers who are upset with the current state of affairs in college athletics the blame falls squarely on the failed leadership at the NCAA. No where else. But change is in order and it can’t be stopped. Leaders with a vision forward are needed, not dinosaurs clinging to the way it used to be.