BATON ROUGE, La. — A Baton Rouge Judge has denied a temporary court order seeking to prevent a series of bills from moving forward in the legislative process.
Friday, attorneys for three criminal justice reform advocates were in court this morning, asking a Judge Beau Higginbotham to pause further debate on four bills approved by the House Criminal Justice Committee this week during the special legislative session on crime.
They claim, the committee and its chair Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, limited public comment and input on the bills over two days of hearings. The panel voted to limit debate to three minutes per witness and one hour per side for those for and against the legislation.
“All individuals get a right to speak,” Emily Posner, and attorney for the petitioners told the judge. “That is what a public hearing is.”
The court petition sought to bar the full House of Representatives from discussing the bills until the Criminal Justice Committee holds a “true public hearing”, where everyone who wants to speak can speak.
The bills included measures that would place limits on post-conviction relief, expand the methods by which Louisiana carries out the death penalty, and two by Villio, one eliminating parole in most cases and another limiting good time credit and credits for time serve.
Dave Smith with the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office argued House and committee rules allow members to adopt time limitations on testimony. He also told the judge the judiciary is prohibited from interfering with the action of another branch of government.
“It would be like reaching over to the capitol and halting progress on the bills,” Smith said.
The TRO petition was filed Wednesday by Norris Henderson, executive director of Voice of the Experienced, Ronald Marshall, chief policy analyst with Voice of the Experienced, and Erica Navalance, a staff attorney with the Promise of Justice Initiative.
After a short recess, Judge Higginbotham said he did have the authority to rule on the TRO.
He then denied the petition.
“There was no evidence that the committee did not have the authority to put time constraints on the public hearing,” Higginbotham said.”
The petitioners stated they intend to seek a full hearing asking for a preliminary injunction on the matter. No date has been set for that hearing.