Meet Jason Williams: The Rogue Prosecutor Whose Policies Are Wreaking Havoc in New Orleans

This commentary is part of a series on the rogue prosecutors around the country backed by liberal billionaires such as George Soros and the threat those prosecutors pose to victims and others alike. Previous entries in the series have focused on the rogue prosecutor movement in general and on specific prosecutors in?Baltimore, Philadelphia,?Chicago,?Boston,?St. Louis,?San Francisco,?Los Angeles,?and?Fairfax, Virginia; and?a U.S. attorney.

To read all our scholarship on rogue prosecutors, click?here or read our book “Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities.” 

The State of Louisiana has had more than its fair share of shady politicians. Household names include Edwin Edwards, Cleo Fields, Ray Nagin Jr., and one of our favorites, William Jefferson—who was convicted by the Feds of bribery and, at the time of his arrest, had $90,000 in cold hard cash in his household freezer!   

Voters in the state, and especially the City of New Orleans, have picked some real corkers over the years. Locals found it unsurprising and strangely amusing when Edwards was convicted of racketeering, Fields was caught on an FBI surveillance video taking $20,000, Nagin was convicted on 20 counts of wire fraud, and Jefferson was pinched for bribery.   

But public safety is no laughing matter in the Big Easy, which brings us to Soros rogue prosecutor and District Attorney Jason Williams.    

Another Soros-Funded Radical    

Williams, like most Soros-backed rogue prosecutors, was a criminal defense attorney before he decided to run for district attorney. He was elected in 2020, in large part because he received $220,000 from Soros that flowed through Fair and Just Prosecution, Color of Change, and the Louisiana Justice and Public Safety Political Action Committee.  

Williams took office in January 2021 and promised to make good on his campaign pledge to end the “tough on crime” approach of his predecessor. A quick aside: When did it become verboten to be tough on crime?   

Williams promised to correct the “sins of the past.” This meant lowering the state’s incarceration rate by making sure that his office sent fewer people to prison. Like all of his rogue colleagues, Williams buys into the twin myths of “mass incarceration” and systemic racism in the criminal justice systems. Neither is true, as my colleague Zack Smith and I wrote about in Chapter 11 of our book “Rogue Prosecutors.”     

Acting Like a Public Defender 

By now, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that these Soros-backed rogue prosecutors don’t really consider themselves prosectors, at least not in the normal sense of the word. That is, lawyers who are dedicated to keeping the public safe and enforcing the criminal laws of their jurisdiction by, gasp, prosecuting criminals. To them, the word “prosecution” is a four-letter word.   

Need proof?   

On the night he was elected in 2017 as Philadelphia DA, criminal defense attorney-turned-prosecutor Larry Krasner called himself a “public defender with power.” Thanks to $1.7M from Soros-funded groups, Krasner won his race and unleashed a tidal wave of crime due to his pro-criminal, anti-victim policies. Like former Los Angeles DA George Gascon, Krasner, Williams, and other members of this movement view defendants as the victims. 

Every single policy of these pseudo-prosecutors inures to the benefit of criminals. Sadly, Jason Williams is no exception. 

All Policies Benefit Criminals 

When he ran for office, Williams promised to water down requests for bail, not prosecute violent juveniles as adults, refuse to prosecute illegal drug possession, and not let his prosecutors add sentencing enhancements for career criminals charged with new crimes.   

Sound familiar? It should, because that’s the standard fare for Soros-supported rogue prosecutors, and part of the unspoken quid pro quo for getting the money to run for office. Rogues like L.A.’s Gascon, Philly’s Krasner, former Baltimore DA Marilyn Mosby, former Chicago DA Kim Foxx, former St. Louis DA Kim Gardner, former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, former Boston DA and U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins all enacted similar policies. They were so notorious that Zack and I gave each an entire chapter in our book.   

One of Williams’ “solutions” was to void hard-fought convictions or reduce the sentences of violent felons. This wasn’t a new or original idea in the rogue prosecutor community. Those who were elected before him, like Foxx (2017), Gascon (2017), Krasner (2018), Rollins (2019) and Boudin (2019) all did the same thing.   

Williams is a piker compared to Gascon, who created a “resentencing unit” immediately upon taking office. That unit was charged with expediting the review of 20,000 to 30,000 cases where his office had earned a conviction, but the sentences were, in his view, “out of policy.” For Gascon, an “out of policy” sentence was any sentence longer than 15 years.   

Williams’ unique way of unwinding cases, voiding convictions, or reducing sentences was through a process called “post-conviction relief.” This is when the court is allowed to consider new evidence after all other appeals have been exhausted. Williams claims that he took that action to undo “past wrongs of his predecessors.”   

Mainstream prosecutors are obligated to alert the court and opposing counsel if/when new evidence is discovered after a conviction that calls into question the culpability of the defendant. Not only does the law require that, but it’s also the right thing to do. But that’s not what Williams was doing. There was no “new evidence” at all. Nor was there any evidence provided of these “wrongdoings” or specific figures on the numbers of resentencing cases his office’s Civil Rights Division has handled. 

The post-conviction relief process is supposed to be, and had been used sparingly, up until “just-let-em-out Jason” was elected. In fact, St. Tammany, Jefferson, and East Baton Rouge parishes (counties) each only had one case where the post-conviction relief was granted in 2024. East Baton Rouge and Jefferson Parish are the largest and second largest parishes by population.   

Compare this to the Orleans parish which had 42 resentencing hearings in 2024 alone, and 349 offenders who have been resentenced since Williams was elected.   

A Contentious Senate Hearing 

Williams’ policies and practices were so controversial that the Judiciary Committee of the Louisiana State Senate held a hearing on Sept. 5, 2024, to find out more about the justification, if any, of his approach and the impact of his policies.   

During the hearing, Laura Rodrique (former Orleans parish prosecutor and daughter of the former DA Leon Cannizzaro) and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill railed against Williams’ approach.   

In summing up her concerns with Williams’ abuse of the post-conviction process, Murrill testified that “it is not the job of the district attorney to disagree with the legislature, the judge and the jury on criminal justice policy.” She stated that her office is reviewing approximately 40 resentencing cases from Williams’ office to ensure that the law was followed, and that Williams did not abuse his authority.   

Williams attempted to justify his actions to state senators, going so far as to say that his policies are “working and we have the public safety numbers to prove it.” 

Ignoring Victims and Unjustified Leniency  

One of hallmarks of Soros-backed rogue prosecutors is their blatant and deliberate violation of victims’ rights. That’s because in their minds, the “real” victims are those accused of crimes. Actual victims of crimes don’t matter to these modern-day radicals.   

One of the worst examples in the country was former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon. He issued a policy directive immediately upon taking office that forbade his deputy district attorneys from attending parole hearings. Victims had to face the convicted felon at his parole hearing alone, rather than have a line prosecutor there to remind the parole board what the criminal did, how he did it, and why he should remain behind bars. Talk about disregarding, and disrespecting, victims! 

While Jason Williams isn’t as bad as Gascon when it comes to victims and victim’s rights, he’s close.    

In Feb. 2025, following completion of her office’s review of the 40 cases she mentioned during her Senate testimony, Murrill announced that there were “at least 35 murder cases that involve first-degree or second-degree murder” where she believed that sentencing relief was “improperly granted.” Murrill is exploring whether her office can get the original convictions and sentences reinstated. 

Giving Violent Teens a Pass 

Another trademark policy for Soros rogue prosecutors is their abject refusal to prosecute violent teens, even 17-year-olds, as adults, even when they commit murder.   

When he took office in Jan. 2021, Williams deployed the same playbook, only later realizing in a very personal way that his hands-off-violent-juvenile scheme poses safety risks.   

In 2020, 15-year-old John Honore and two 17-year-old friends were charged as adults for carjacking by former New Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro. After Williams took office, instead of pursuing the case in adult court, or removing the case back to juvenile court, he dropped the charges altogether.   

Two years later, the 17-year-old John Honore and three teen friends were accused of second-degree murder after they carjacked 73-year-old Linda Frickey in broad daylight and dragged her for more than a block.  

In Nov. 2023, Honore’s three friends pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter. Honore was found guilty at trial, and on Jan.12, 2024, was sentenced to life in prison. During his sentencing hearing, Honore did not apologize to the Frickey family. Frickey, like so many other victims of violent crime, would be alive today had the prosecutor held the juvenile violent assailant accountable for the previous charge of carjacking.   

Williams’ lenient approach to violent juvenile crime came back to haunt him and his 78-year-old mother. On Oct. 16, 2023, they were the victims of an armed carjacking committed by four teens. The attorney general’s office charged each of the four violent teens as adults. Not surprisingly, Williams did not object to the juveniles being tried as adults. Hypocrisy knows no bounds.   

Missing Deadlines Has Deadly Consequences 

Another common attribute of Soros-backed rogue prosecutors is that, for the most part, none has been a district attorney before they were propped up and hoisted into office. They have little-to-no management experience, much less experience running a prosecutor’s office where tight timelines, punctuality, court orders, and the like matter.   

Defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. The onus falls, as it should, on the government to charge and try a person accused of a crime in a timely manner, not only to uphold the defendant’s constitutional rights, but also statutory or court-created speedy trial timelines.  

Under our Constitution and state laws, criminal suspects (who are presumed innocent) are not supposed to languish in jail while the DA dilly-dallies and tries to figure out whether to charge the person. Professional career prosecutors know this. Soros-supported rogue prosecutors for the most part don’t. 

Which brings us to Williams and inexcusable 701 releases.   

Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 701 is the state speedy trial statute. If a person is charged with a felony in Louisiana and is in custody, the state must bring the defendant to trial within 120 days. If the state doesn’t bring the defendant to trial within those 120 days, he must be released from custody. The charges aren’t dropped, but the defendant, regardless of what he may have done, is to be released.  

In rare instances, this time deadline can be excused, such as when a prosecutor cannot bring a defendant to trial within 120 days because of delays in processing forensic evidence, witness issues, or other complications in a case.   

But that’s not what happened once Williams took office.  

Once Williams took control, the 701 release rate exploded and was eight times higher than his predecessor. In 2021, 125 people facing at least one felony count were in pretrial detention. Because of Williams’ lackluster approach, his office failed to bring them to trial within 120 days and 100 were released from jail. To make matters worse, at least 50 of those suspects were accused of violent crimes or domestic violence.  

Mike Wyatt is one of the worst examples of a Williams 701 release.  Wyatt was arrested by the New Orleans Police Department for being the triggerman in a double shooting committed in July 2021. One of the victims died and the other sustained serious injuries. Wyatt was arrested and placed in pretrial detention in the Orleans Justice Center on suspicion of second-degree murder.   

After Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans a month later, and his pretrial hearings were rescheduled several times, Wyatt walked out of jail in Dec. 2021 as a 701 release. Six months later, Williams dropped the case altogether. In Aug. 2023, Wyatt allegedly murdered Johnny Huntley by shooting him in the forehead.  

Arrests Down and Crime Is Up 

Not surprisingly, Soros-backed rogue district attorneys refuse to accept any responsibility for rising crime rates that naturally occur after they inflict their pro-criminal, anti-victim policies on an unsuspecting electorate. Denial and deflection are their specialty.   

Confronted with rising crime rates in their cities, rogue prosecutors blame anyone but themselves. Williams blames the New Orleans Police Department, but they aren’t taking that allegation laying down.  

According to a Metropolitan Crime Commission report covering Williams’ first year in office, there has “been a drastic decline in accountability for violent felony offenders.”  To help solve crimes, New Orleans police have “secured the cooperation of victims and witnesses to make 1,411 violent felony arrests between Jan. 11, 2021 [when Williams took office] to Sept. 10, 2021.”    

The commission report noted that Williams’ office either refused to prosecute or dismissed 937 violent felony cases during that time, including against defendants charged with murder, attempted murder and robbery.  

By comparison, the commission noted that under the previous district attorney, the New Orleans DA’s office accepted 67% of violent felony arrests in 2019 and 75% in 2020 for prosecution. Under Williams, the acceptance rate fell to 54%.   

In virtually every city that has elected a Soros-backed rogue prosecutor, crime rates have skyrocketed compared to their “tough on crime” predecessors. Williams is no exception.  

Murder   

After New Orleans saw its lowest homicide rates in 2019 under the leadership of Cannizzaro (122 murders), the city faced its worse homicide rate in 2022 (266 murders), a 131% increase just two years after Williams took office. While the murder rate has dropped since then, it has not returned to the (already too high) rate experienced under his predecessor.  

Rape  

In 2019, there was 794 cases of rape, which decreased to 708 cases in 2020. In 2021, after Williams’ first year in office, that number increased to 808, although it did appear to drop to 756 in 2024.  

Carjacking  

In 2019, there were only 109 carjackings. By the end of Williams’ first year in 2021, there were 288. The number of carjackings once again increased in 2022 to 382, but have dropped to 215 in 2023 and 111 in 2024.  

Shootings  

Between 2019 and 2022, shootings increased 88%. There were 256 shootings in 2019 and 490 shootings in 2021. The number of shootings dropped in 2022 to 470 and have continued to decline in 2023 and 2024.   

Robbery 

In 2019, there were 747 robberies. In 2021 this number had decreased to 722 and then rose again in 2022 to 823. This number once again dropped in 2024 to 417.  

Soft on Crime Impact 

As Zack and I have written elsewhere, violent crime is geographically and demographically concentrated in the inner cities. The vast majority of homicide victims in the inner city are minority men, and New Orleans is no exception. Their perpetrators are, for the most part, other minority men.   

But a less obvious impact of a soft-on-crime approach is the devastating impact it has had on police moral, recruiting, and retention. When the district attorney refuses to prosecute most misdemeanors, and waters down felonies or simply refuses to prosecute some felonies, refuses to prosecute violent juveniles as adults, and refuses to prosecute those who resist arrest, such policies increase the risk to police officers and decrease their motivation to patrol dangerous areas and make arrests.   

In turn, police officers in those jurisdictions think—because it’s true—that the district attorney is not for law and order and is not interested in keeping communities safe.   

The cumulative impact of those policies has caused police officers to quit.   

The Metropolitan Crime Commission found that police officers’ efforts to hold violent offenders accountable were “undermined by the DA’s office,” and that “safety in New Orleans deteriorated from 2019 to 2022 as major violent crime surged 69%.” As a result, the report found that there were 23% fewer commissioned police officers in 2022 compared to 2019, from 1,226 to 940 officers.    

On Thin Ice 

Of the 2,300 elected district attorneys across the country, only about 72 or so are Soros-funded or inspired rogue prosecutors. But they reign over 65% of the population in the country, as they tend to be elected in large blue cities with dense populations.   

When first arriving on the national stage in 2017 with the election of Chicago’s Kim Foxx, they were all the rage. Voters had high hopes that their lofty language about “reimagining” prosecution and reforms will result in a new way of addressing criminal justice matters. But they also wanted public safety, which, they assumed would come along with these edgy new candidates. 

Voters were deceived. They found out the hard way that there is nothing progressive about the progressive prosector movement.   

The electoral backlash took time, but eventually voters ousted rogues such as Chesa Boudin, George Gascon, and Marilyn Mosby. Others faltered under their own incompetence or ethical lapses like Kim Gardner and Rachel Rollins. Kim Foxx was urged not to run for reelection last year because her abysmal track record was a political albatross for the Democratic Party, which held its national convention in her town of Chicago, and party elders didn’t want a repeat of the 1968 protests surrounding the Democratic Convention.   

Each of them failed because voters in their cities realized, eventually, that their district attorney’s pro-criminal, anti-victim, cop-hating policies were the reason that crime exploded in their cities. 

It’s only a matter of time before voters in New Orleans do the same thing. 

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