Washington, DC (February 23, 2026) – The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) honored Calvin Duncan, criminal legal reform advocate and incoming Clerk of Criminal Court for Orleans Parish, at a reception during their Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
On January 7, 2011, the Innocence Project of New Orleans secured Calvin Duncan’s release after he had served 28½ years for a crime he did not commit. While incarcerated, Calvin worked as a legal counsel substitute for 23 years and for 19 of those years assisted individuals on Louisiana’s Death Row. After his release, Calvin enrolled in the Tulane University School of Continuing Studies, pursuing a degree in paralegal studies. In 2013, the Open Society Foundation awarded him the Soros Justice Fellowship to support his work helping incarcerated individuals overcome procedural barriers to court access. During this fellowship, he also contributed to efforts to change Louisiana’s non-unanimous jury verdict law. He was elected as the Clerk of Criminal Court for Orleans Parish in November of 2025. Prior to his election, he was director of The Light of Justice Program, whose mission is to assist incarcerated individuals in gaining access to the courts. Calvin is a co-founder of The First 72+, which provides transitional housing for people recently released from prison, and Rising Foundations, an organization dedicated to ending cycles of incarceration. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Paralegal Studies at Tulane in August 2018 and received his J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in May 2023. Calvin’s memoir, The Jailhouse Lawyer, was published by Penguin Random House in July 2025.
“This is truly a full circle moment,” said New Orleans Litigation Attorney Avery Pardee. “Because Calvin has been elected to lead the clerk's office in the same courthouse where he was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1985 and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. It took 28 years for Calvin to be exonerated. During that time, Calvin acted as inmate council substitute for so many other incarcerated people … Calvin was somebody who for 28 years that Ramos was settled law, that the rule was you could be convicted on a 10-2 verdict, for 28 years he raised that issue and he preserved that issue. He looked at it and he saw, this is not fair, it cannot be constitutional. And because of him so many other incarcerated people had that issue preserved when the law was corrected. He sued the prison to ensure that people were getting adequate medical care, to ensure that people were getting adequate nutrition, to ensure that people were getting adequate mental health care. And after 28 years, he was free.”
“While I was trying to study law, I noticed that half of the Bill of Rights was enacted to protect people like me, people accused of crimes,” said Calvin Duncan. “Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and the First Amendment right to access the court and a right to petition the government. So it was that that revelation that convinced me that if I studied the law, I could equip myself with the most dangerous weapon that this country could give any citizen, that is the right to protect the Bill of Rights … We have the greatest weapon to make sure that these rights are continuing to live, and I pray that we continue to wield that power that we have that other people desperately need.”
Contacts
Jessie Diamond, Deputy Director, Public Affairs and Communications, (202) 465-7647 or jdiamond@nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.
