BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A Baton Rouge judge disqualified Attorney General Jeff Landry’s legal team in a lawsuit filed to stop clemency hearings for death row inmates, court records show.
A motion was made to disqualify Sher Garner Cahill Richer Klein and Hilbert LLC from representing the Louisiana Board of Pardons.
According to court documents, Mr. J. Smith, the attorney chosen to represent the board, prepared to file a motion citing the attorney general’s conflicts of interest before Landry sent a letter to Smith saying that he would not authorize Smith to serve as counsel. Smith was removed from counsel, and Landry approved Sher Garner, a firm that has represented the attorney general before, documents said.
“The Board has known about the Attorney General’s involvement in these cases for some time and never raised an issue of conflict,” Landry said in another document.
Oct. 19 court minutes show that the attorney general’s team was granted a one-month stay by a judge to find new counsel.
The next hearing is set for Nov. 17.
