| ► Today’s Public Official Misfit is New Orleans DA Leon A. Cannizzaro, Jr. |
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Today’s Public Official Misfit is New Orleans DA Leon A. Cannizzaro, Jr. 
In yesterday’s New York Times, reporters Adam Liptak and Campbell Robertson wrote a story titled: “Surpeme Court looks again at methods of D.A.’s office in Louisiana,” which can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3zqna69.
The Times story speaks about prosecutorial misconduct in the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office and the fact that it must now explain its conduct to the U.S. Supreme Court for the third time in 16 years.
DA Cannizzaro, Jr. has dedicated the lion’s share of his adult life porking out at the public trough. Prior to duping the voters into el
 ecting him as District Attorney, Leon spent 17 years as a District Court Judge and several years as an appellate court judge.
In keeping with the well-documented abuses of his predecessor, DA Harry Connick, Leon also found it acceptable to conceal exculpatory evidence from defense attorneys for the sole purpose of obtaining convictions.
I am by no means an apologist for criminals; however, I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to a fair trial despite Leon’s disdain for this constitutionally protected principle.
The most recent abuse (ca. 2009) by Leon’s office involves the conviction of Mr. Anderson who was sentenced to death. Several months after his conviction, Leon’s office disclosed that they had not turned over a video taped interview of its key witness, in which she contradicted her trial testimony in several significant aspects, nor had they revealed the nature of a deal with a jailhouse informant who testified for the DA’s office. (NY Times)
To intentionally conceal highly relevant evidence from the defense is a total perversion of the oath of office that DA Leon Cannizzaro, Jr. took as Orleans Parish District Attorney. In his zeal to put yet another notch on his conviction belt, Leon treated his oath of office with total disdain and contempt.
The Louisiana Supreme Court should take action against Leon’s law license. In fact, he should be permanently disbarred in my opinion. Put simply, Leon has forfeited his right to act as chief prosecutor for the good folks of Orleans Parish.
And lastly, if justice was truly blind, Leon would be sentenced to do some valuable time at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (aka, “Alcatraz of the South”) and be assigned to bunk up with Clarice (real name is Clarence) in cell No. 146.
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