Thread by @reveal

1/ In a recent episode, @Eve_Abrams dug into Louisiana’s three strikes law, also known as the habitual offender statute.

Here’s a brief, fascinating history of the law … revealnews.org/episodes/10-ye…

2/ In 1833, Edward Livingston (who had beef with Washington and Jefferson and freed actual pirates … look this guy up) was asked to compile penal laws for the State of Louisiana.

He included this:

3/ Livingston’s penal code didn’t pass.

After a ton of digging and questioning historians across the country, @TulaneHistory’s @BardesJohn found the earliest codified repeat offender law, which *did* pass. It’s from 1843:

4/ Lots of people were swept up in repeat offender laws. It didn’t seem to matter what the crime was (Reporter @katyreckdahl dug up a ton of stuff for this story, including this 1846 article about enhanced punishments for repeatedly practicing midwifery without a license).

5/ And here's one from 1847 about repeat gambling offenders:

6/ With help from Louisiana Supreme Court Librarian Cynthia Jones, @Eve_Abrams traced today’s habitual offender law back to Louisiana’s Penal Acts from 1855:

7/ All of this is to say:

This law has been on the books a LONG time. But it wasn’t used a lot until the 1970s, when crime rose and DAs across the country launched a “tough on crime” approach.

8/ In New Orleans, Harry Connick (yup, the father of @HarryConnickJR) campaigned for DA vowing to use the habitual offender statute more aggressively.

Here’s a newspaper ad from 1973:

9/ The unexpected legal expert of @Eve_Abrams’ reporting was jailhouse lawyer Kenneth “Biggy” Johnston. Biggy sued Connick in 1975 over his racially discriminatory use of the habitual offender law.

10/ While incarcerated at Angola, Biggy analyzed who was coming to prison under the habitual offender law and found that Connick was using it mostly to sentence black men.

And in some cases, with white defendants, Connick was not using this law *at all.*

11/ Side note: Biggy told us about being forced to pick cotton at Angola when he was a prisoner there:

12/ After hearing Biggy’s story about picking cotton at Angola, @TulaneLaw professor @katherinemattes sent @Eve_Abrams an Angola State Penitentiary Disciplinary Report from 1980.

The infraction: Picking cotton too slowly.

13/ After DA Harry Connick started using Louisiana’s three strikes law to lock people up in Angola for life – some for crimes like stealing a tv, according to Biggy – DAs in other states stepped up their use of similar laws, too.

14/ And the term “three strikes”? That came from New Orleans too. In 1978, N.O. State Rep. Ron Faucheux introduced legislation mandating life in prison after a person’s 3rd offense instead of 4th. He co-coined the term, “three strikes, you’re out.”

15/ Today’s habitual offender law follows the same logic: If locking someone up the first time doesn’t work, perhaps consider doing it for a much longer time.

16/ By the way: Data analyses by @BrennanCenter conclude that more incarceration doesn’t reduce crime:

brennancenter.org/sites/default/…

17/ Our recent investigation found that New Orleans DA Leon Cannizzaro has used today’s habitual offender law more than 2,600 times in 10 years.

In nearby East Baton Rouge, an even bigger area, the DA used it in just 66 cases over the same decade.

18/ Recent reforms in Louisiana have moved the state from the world’s #1 per-capita incarcerator to #2. But those reforms probably won’t affect the 2,600 Orleans Parish cases in which people – 90% of them black – have already been convicted and sentenced under three strikes.

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