The exonerated prisoner kicked out of office by Republicans
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
Today, the man who fought his whole life for justice and the Republicans who took him down.
I, Calvin Duncan... I, Calvin Duncan... ..do solemnly swear... One April morning earlier this year, Calvin Duncan stood on the steps outside the grand old courthouse in New Orleans, placed his right hand on a Bible and swore an oath that would elevate him to an elected office serving in the state of Louisiana.
..that I would support the Constitution... And the laws of the United States... And the laws of the United States...
The office he'd been elected to was pretty obscure. He'd just become the court's criminal clerk, its chief administrative officer. Yet his race to win that office had electrified the state. Because Calvin was no ordinary state bureaucrat. His journey, from growing up as a black child in one of New Orleans' poorest and most violent neighborhoods, to one of Louisiana's most brutal prisons, where he served 28 years for a murder he didn't commit, to this moment, at 64 years old, pledging to serve the people and ensure others didn't suffer the same injustices, was extraordinary.
I should leave this building. It would take me three days to recover. One of the things I had, I envisioned was that when people come to this office, that we will smile at.
It was a remarkable story of resilience. And for many who'd voted for him, also of hope.
Our friend, our champion, our leader, our clerk, Calvin Dunn.
But it didn't last.
They fight so hard to take the most important thing away from us because they see the people you vote for can't help you. And the people that can help you, they are not allowed to run for office. And if one of y'all slip and get through the cracks to get in a position to run for office, we're going to abolish the damn seat.
Just three hours after taking office, Calvin Duncan was stripped of the role he'd fought so hard to win after Louisiana Republicans, emboldened by the politics of Donald Trump's second presidency, moved against him.
Who is Calvin Duncan and how did his early life lead to incarceration?
From The Guardian, I'm Annie Kelly. Today in Focus, Calvin Duncan and the brutal battle for voting rights, political power and justice in Trump's America.
Oliver Loughlin, you're the Guardian's US Southern Bureau Chief. Thanks for joining us today. I hope you're doing all right.
Thanks so much for having me.
So you're here to tell us this kind of extraordinary story of Calvin Duncan. I know you've recently spent quite a bit of time with him at his home in Louisiana. So first of all, could you tell us who is he? Perhaps you could take us back to his early life before he was incarcerated.
Yeah, so he grew up in a housing project called the Desire Housing Projects. They no longer exist, but they are, you know, by all accounts, and I've interviewed a lot of people who have kind of grown up in that neighbourhood, one of the poorest parts of New Orleans and a high crime area as well. Lost his mother from a very early age and was really kind of a father figure to his younger sister from the age of 10. He was driven to petty crime, basically to, you know, keep him and his sister fed and clothed.
It sounds like he had an incredibly tough upbringing then, incredibly tough childhood. Could you give us a bit of the context of how it was that he was arrested and charged with this murder at such a young age, at 19?
In August of 1981, a 23-year-old white guy named David Yeager was shot during a robbery in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans. There was a single eyewitness, who was his teenage girlfriend at the time, who basically gave the police a description that didn't really match Calvin's description at all. But when presented with his photograph in a photographic lineup, she identified him. And this basically started the spiral of his life.
He basically languished in this county jail in New Orleans for three years before his trial. Oliver, tell me, what were conditions like there for him?
So the Orleans Parish Jail is a notorious facility, not just in the state of Louisiana, but across the world.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:46
2
Who is Calvin Duncan and how did his early life lead to incarceration?
2:46–23:55
3
What evidence and courtroom conditions led to Calvin's 1981 conviction?
23:55–27:52
4
How did prison conditions and jailhouse lawyering shape Calvin's fight for freedom?
27:52–29:17
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Today in Focus
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