Wrongly convicted, he became ‘The Jailhouse Lawyer’ — and helped free himself

Calvin Duncan was 19 in 1982 when the police arrested him for a murder-robbery in New Orleans. The eyewitness testimony at his trial was unreliable, but Duncan’s lawyer offered only a minimal defense, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

While in prison, Duncan studied law, hoping to appeal his case. In the process he became a jailhouse lawyer — officially as part of the Inmate Counsel Substitute Program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.

“In places like Louisiana, once a conviction is upheld on direct appeal, we’re not entitled to a lawyer,” Duncan says. “[Jailhouse lawyers] actually provide legal assistance to those individuals that cannot afford an attorney.”

Duncan worked on hundreds of cases while he was in prison. “There are guys that committed their crimes. There are guys that didn’t commit their crimes,” he says. “As a jailhouse lawyer, we provided assistance to everybody that we determined that was not afforded a fair trial.”

The incumbent candidate from a powerful local political family

To date, the Clerk’s Office still closes at 3 pm. Making matters worse, the Clerk’s official website inaccurately states that the Clerk’s Office is open until 4 pm. The Office’s closure at 3 pm likely violates Louisiana law, which requires clerk’s offices to be open from 8:30 - 4:30 pm. See La. R. S. § 13:756.

Mr. Lombard stated that implementing an e-filing system for attorneys would be a top priority in the first 100 days of his administration. Four years later, lawyers working in New Orleans are still waiting. Orleans Parish is the only major metropolitan clerk’s office in Louisiana where e-filing is not available. Mr. Lombard’s broken campaign promise contributes to the delays in processing criminal cases, and relying on paper filing in 2025 increases the risk for the misplacement and loss of court records – not to mention paper filing unnecessarily increases the office’s environmental footprint.

Beyond e-filing, digitizing the Court records increases access to these files for the public – especially for those folks who work 9-5 jobs and cannot get to the office to look these files up before 3 o’clock.

There is a common misconception in Louisiana that if you have a felony conviction that you cannot vote – this is wrong (check out if you are eligible). Mr. Lombard promised to update the Clerk of Court’s website with the eligibility criteria a potential voter must meet if they have a felony conviction. As of today, the Clerk’s Website fails to share this essential voting information. This is not a great look for the City’s Chief Election Officer.

Up until September 5, 2025, under Mr. Lombard’s leadership, the Clerk of Court’s website listed wrong dates for the next election, and listed the wrong voter registration deadlines.