THE PASSING OF ONE OF LSU’S GREATEST!

Monday, October 26^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE PASSING OF ONE OF LSU’S GREATEST!

Louisiana lost a major sports icon last week. LSU coach Dale Brown, one of the winningest coaches in basketball history, passed away at 90 years old. He took LSU from the dregs of college basketball as a respected coach who posted numerous winning records.  Coach Brown was Southeast Conference coach of the year or the runner-up on nine different occasions, and was national coach of the year twice. 

 But he was more than a basketball coach.  He was a motivator and regularly spoke out about the importance of changing the social ills that face so many Americans.  He traveled the world, and sought out challenges, even traveling in a small boat the whole length of the Mississippi River. He was a personal friend of Mother Teresa and close to several presidents, including George Bush.   Simply put, Dale Brown was a renaissance man. He was also my close friend.

Dale knew that I was a basketball recruit at the University of North Carolina. I was the first recruit of legendary coach Dean Smith there, and Dale and Dean were close friends for many years. We always joked that we had to be related having the same last name.

Dale came to Louisiana from North Dakota, but immediately adjusted to the special Louisiana way of life. He knew he had an uphill fight trying to solve basketball in a state that is still consumed by football. LSU Athletics Director Joe Dean told Coach Brown: “If you take the job, you will raise the flag, you will sing the national anthem, you’ll keep your own stats and you will sweep the floor. LSU is totally uninterested in basketball.”  

I’ve had front row seats for LSU basketball games for over 50 years. During the time I served as Secretary Of State, I often brought a load of the state’s newspapers to thumb through as I watched the game. Dale made a special trip to see me in my office back in the 1980s. There had been a picture in the local paper of me reading during a basketball game. Coach Brown asked me to please not read during the games as it looked like I was a fan who was uninterested. I  certainly complied with his wishes.

Dale undertook a personal vendetta against the NCAA as to how it regulated basketball. He openly  called the national sports supervisors “Gestapo bastards” for how he believed they governed. His fight against the NCAA continued for many years, and most of the changing regulations he had lobbied for were eventually put in place.

I still have a copy of a 1985 Sports Illustrated magazine that had Dale Brown on its cover. The headline said it all, “Crazy Days at LSU.” When they talked about the coach, the cover story said, “Hello trouble, I’m Dale Brown.” The article went on to quote Dale as saying “From the moment they snipped the umbilical cord, I’ve been in the middle of controversy.”  It was easy to understand why so many people loved this guy.

Dale always made it clear that he wanted to be a winner. He coached LSU for 25 years, and when he retired in 1997, he held 448 wins. Dale made two Final Four appearances, one in Philadelphia and the other in Dallas. I was there on both occasions.  Thirty years has passed and Dale Brown still ranks forth on the all-time list of winningest coaches.

Many outstanding basketball coaches have come and gone since Dale Brown retired. But if you have to look for one coach who strived for victory in sports as well as in life, and spoke out about so many social causes that were important to him right up until the day he passed away, there would be none better and few who could compare with LSU ‘s indomitable Coach Dale Brown. Rest in peace, my friend. There will definitely be a place for you up yonder.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

HOLDING SOMEONE’S HAND!

Monday, October 19th, 2026

Baton Rouge , Louisiana

 HOLDING SOMEONE’S HAND!

I’ve always looked upon myself as a hand holder. Of course, holding the hand of a loved one. As someone in politics, I’m sure I have shaken thousands of hands over the years. The Beatles urged us many years ago, singing: “I wanna hold your hand.”

I always loved to sing Neil Diamond’s best-known song, Sweet Caroline. His words say:       

Hands
Touchin’ hands
Reachin’ out
Touchin’ me, touchin’ you.

(As a sidenote, the first time I heard Neil Diamond perform was quite a day. I got married at noon, went to see Tulane beat LSU, and went to a late Neil Diamond concert at the LSU Assembly Center.)

Holding someone’s hand is one of the simplest, yet most powerful, ways to express affection, love, and human connection. Sometimes, a hand can say what words cannot. Covid changed all that for many of us. We started fist bumping or just waving. People were reluctant to hold someone’s hand because of what proved to be an unfounded worry about infection.

I always have looked forward to the priest or preacher telling their flock: “Peace be with you.” We would turn to one another and shake our neighbors’ hands. It seems like we’ve drifted away from the special symbol of taking a hand close by us. I’m here to advocate we take up this tradition again.

I believe all of us need connection. A hand, held with tenderness, can help someone feel valued, accepted, and remembered. It reminds us that we are part of one another’s lives. So now, when I go to church on Sunday, I’m making it a point of holding the hand of those seated around me. During the stressful world we live in today, it seems like a small gesture, but an important thing to do.

There is something quite special about holding another person’s hand. You don’t have to solve their problems, entertain them, or explain their feelings. You simply have to be present.

A hand can say: I am here. You matter to me. You don’t have to face this alone. For this moment, let us share the world together.

Author Roger Rosenblatt puts it this way: “You pray with your hands. You sign language with your hands. Some read the lines in your hands as predictive of your life. Approval is indicated by a show of hands. To celebrate you give a high five. Extend your hand towards a baby and it will cling to a finger.”

And sometimes, holding someone’s hand is also a way of saying, I don’t know how much time we have, but I want you to know that you are special to me. Perhaps the most important thing about holding someone’s hand is for a few moments, two people are reminded that, despite all the independence we cherish, none of us is meant to go through life entirely alone.

From those of us who follow the teachings in both the Old and New Testaments the “laying on of hands” has special significance. Jesus Christ used his hands to heal the sick and bless small children. I was named after the Apostle James.  He prescribes using the hands to anoint with oil on the forehead, which I do each week when taking communion.

In the book of Genesis, Jacob (Israel) placed his hands on the heads of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to pass down a patriarchal blessing and assign their future inheritance.

OK, I know I’m an old guy and certainly have missed a number of friends who passed away before me. But it’s still not too late for me to make special connections with all my old and new friends. And shaking hands, even holding a hand for a bit longer than normal, seems like a really nice gesture in this crazy world we live in today. So if you pass me on the street, see me in a restaurant, or sit close to me in church, be aware of the fact that I’ve become a renewed hand holder. I’m OK with that, and I hope you are too.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. Several quotes were used from AI. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

  

IT STILL SHOULD BE COLUMBUS DAY!

October 12th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

It was Christopher Columbus’s day with a big celebration at the White House by President Trump. Trump’s Columbus Day proclamation declares Oct. 12 as Columbus Day and praises the Italian explorer’s “valor, adventure, and ingenuity.”

Many are opposed to honoring Columbus and have changed the celebration date to something called Indigenous Peoples Day. That’s right. We changed the name, and now we are supposed to celebrate those Indian tribes Columbus encountered on his discovery of the Americas, a number of which were cannibals. So let’s give a one hand clap for all those indigenous groups that ate, raped and massacred numerous  explorers coming to  the new world.

OK, OK, Columbus was a brutal voyager.  But all sides were pretty much so back in that day. Actually, Columbus himself was a fairly unimportant character as to why there is a national day named for him to begin with. And would you believe that like so many other major events that affected the development of America, the idea of Columbus Day all began in Louisiana.

Columbus Day becoming a national holiday was essentially an accident.  Here’s what actually happened. After the Civil War (that by the way was kicked off at Fort Sumter by Louisiana Brig. Gen. P.G.T Beauregard and his  Confederate forces), there was widespread immigration into the United States. Large numbers of Italians flocked to New Orleans, the  cosmopolitan city of the south.  These new immigrants worked for low wages and kept to themselves along with maintaining the Italian language, strong family ties, and a resilient Catholic faith. They were resented by many New Orleanians already living there.

With all these new immigrants from a number of countries, crime took a strong increase. We’ve all seen “The Godfather.” (If you haven’t, you probably ought to quit reading this as you won’t understand.). The “Mafioso” culture of the Italians grew dramatically for their own protection.  This didn’t sit well with all the other locals.

In his recent book “Vendetta,” Richard Gambino describes the situation this way. Hatred for Italian immigrants practically became official city policy as the mayor said on the record to reporters, “Italians in New Orleans lacked honor, truth, pride, religion, or any other quality that goes to make a good citizen.”  These immigrants from Italy  took the brunt of widespread killings as Italians were lynched in the streets and hung on lamp posts. 

Tragically, half of the country shared this sentiment coming out of the Crescent City. The Washington Post described the lynching as “the people’s justice, swift and sure, visited upon those whom juries in New Orleans had neglected to punish.”  Tensions  grew between the U.S and Italy.  Some in  Washington even talked of war between the two countries.

Thank goodness for President Benjamin Harrison, who most of us have never even heard of. He was outraged as to what was happening in New Orleans and put together a federal fund for those families of Italian victims who were lynched. His efforts were not popular in Congress and there was even an attempt to censure President Harrison over what he had done.

Harrison then noticed that the 400^th anniversary of the Columbus landing in the New World would take place on October 21, 1892.  So he argued this would be a good beginning point for healing.  

 

So it was New Orleans, not Columbus, that was the emphasis to have this national holiday. A way to honor Italians after the terrible violence that took place to so many of its citizens in the Crescent city. The name of Columbus was almost a fluke. It could have been any significant Italian.  (Humm! Let’s see. Leonardo de Vinci, Michaelangelo, Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti How about even Tony Bennett day?)

 There are more than 6000 locations named for  Columbus throughout the U.S., including Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Georgia, Columbus, Illinois, and Columbus, Arkansas to name a few. We also have the District of Columbia as our nation’s capital, the Columbia river, British Columbia and Columbus Circle in Manhattan. So do we now change all these thousands of names?

 

We have torn down monuments, wiped clean certain history books and now we are ignoring historical events by suppression.  And before we consider more wiping of our history clean, it might be a good idea to see just what the real story is behind the historical event.

Oh, and by the way, my personal choice to honor Italians would be Sophia Loren Day.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

 

AMERICA NEEDS MORE HEROES!

Monday, October 5^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

AMERICA NEEDS MORE HEROES!

Psychologist Carl Jung wrote that we are born to need heroes. Having a hero in our lives nurtures us, gives us hope, lifts us up, gives us reasons to dream and be inspired. Every kid has a special champion they admire and look up to. I was no exception. Early on they were sports superstars.

I went to high school in St. Louis before my folks moved to Louisiana. Baseball and basketball stars were my early idols as a kid growing up cheering for the St. Louis Cardinals
professional baseball team and the basketball Hawks. I attended Busch Stadium on a May Sunday afternoon when Stan the Man Musial hit five home runs in a double header. What a magic day that has never been repeated in baseball. I never stopped admiring and cheering on the guy who was considered the greatest baseball player of his day.

I could list several other special sports moments and superstars I look up to. But at the top of my list was, in my opinion, the greatest basketball star who ever played the game. He grew up in Baton Rouge and set records galore both at LSU and in the N.B.A. No, not Pistol Pete Maravich. Sure, he was spectacular on the court and was as good a scorer as they came. But my hero, then and now, was and is Bob Pettit.  He died last week at the age of 93.

Bob Pettit’s rise to one of the all-time greats began at Baton Rouge High back in the early 1950s. He couldn’t even make the squad in his freshman and sophomore years, but then he blossomed to lead his high school team to the state championship and gain a scholarship to LSU. And then did he blossom, becoming a two-time All American, averaging 28 points a game in his career. His No. 50 jersey has been retired forever and hangs at the P. Mac on the LSU campus.

Then Pettit joined the St. Louis Hawks and was an NBA all-star in all 11 seasons he played. I
constantly badgered my Dad to take me to the St. Louis Arena to watch Pettit play. And after the game when I went home, I headed for the basketball goal on our garage to shoot for hours and try to imitate Bob Pettit on our driveway court.

Let me tell you how captivating the Hawks and Pettit were to our community. The Hawks and the Boston Celtics, with star Bill Russell, were playing for the NBA championship on a Saturday afternoon back in 1958. I was competing in the Missouri district track meet and was about to run in the high hurdle finals. But the meet was halted for the large crowd in attendance to listen over the loudspeakers to the final minutes of the Hawks-Celtics game. Pettit hit the winning basket in the final seconds, scoring 50 points for the contest. Yes, I won the race, but the highlight of the day was Bob Pettit’s super performance.

I had hoped to be a college star like Pettit and was lucky enough to be recruited by legendary North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith. But a superstar was not on the radar for me, and I stayed on the track in college. When I ended up in Louisiana, what a treat it was to meet and get to know my hero, Bob Pettit. He became a successful banker down in
Jefferson Parish and was always available over the years with advice and political support. He was looked on as a gentleman in both business and sports.

 A statue of Bob was unveiled on the LSU campus right outside the basketball center. He had one of the great jump shots in the game, and his statute shows him in the same pose that allowed him to be the first NBA player to score 20,000 points.

When it comes to national politics, the nation rarely excels. But in college sports, the Bayou State has created many superstars. And at the top of the list is my personal longtime hero, Bob Pettit. We sure could use many more just like him.

*******

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

 

LOUISIANA’S KENNEDY IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE?

Monday, September 28^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LOUISIANA’S KENNEDY IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE?

The next election for president is two years away, but there are candidates in both parties who are positioning themselves for a possible run. A new candidate on the list, and a guy from Louisiana, is current U.S. Senator John Kennedy , who is 74. When asked about his interest in the nation’s top office, Kennedy did not shy away from a retort.  He promptly responded with the title of a 1984 country hit by the Judd family: “Why not me?”

If you haven’t followed the Senator’s recent activities, he’s visited the early primary states of both Iowa and South Carolina to raise money for other Republicans.  His book about Washington’s dysfunction was on the New York Times best-selling list for several months. And he has a campaign fund approaching $20 million. Kennedy was quoted in a recent interview of saying: “if I get tired of this place (the Senate), and/or if a bunch of goobers run for president, then I reserve the right to run.” I’m not sure what he meant by being a goober, but I’m sure he will tell us with his sense of humor.

Kennedy is one of the number of Louisiana politicos who has considered a run for national office.  The only Louisianan who was ever elected president was Zachary Taylor back in 1849. Huey Long was considered to be a serious candidate running against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. His plans were derailed when he was assassinated at the Louisiana State Capitol.

Gov. John McKeithen made a run for national office in 1968. He was rumored to be a front runner to join Vice President Hubert Humphrey on the Democratic ticket. At the last minute, Humphrey passed on McKeithen and picked Senator Edmund Muskie from Maine.

In more recent times, Gov. Buddy Roemer ran a respectable race in the 2012 Republican primary, but refused any contribution over one hundred dollars and was not able to keep up with the more well-funded candidates. And who can forget Bobby Jindal’s quixotic presidential race in 2016 when he quickly crashed and burned after ignoring the home folks back in the Bayou State?

In 1978, Gov. Edwin Edwards was at the height of his popularity. He had been easily re-elected to a second term two years earlier. With the price of natural gas and oil continuing to rise, the coffers of the state treasury were filled, and Governor Edwards faced little controversy. Candidates for office in the 1978 and 1979 elections eagerly sought his endorsement.  

As his second term was winding down, he was obviously looking for new challenges. The Governor and I made a joint appearance in north Louisiana early in 1978, then flew back to Baton Rouge together on the state plane. I was reading a book my father had given me, Marathon, The Pursuit of the Presidency 1972-1976, by Jules Witcover.

The book presented an account of the 1976 presidential election and went into great detail as to how Jimmy Carter rose from being a little-known Southern governor to getting elected President of the United States. The Governor noticed the book, and I gave him a brief description of the author's explanation showing Carter's effort in putting together a Georgia campaign team that was able to capture the Democratic nomination. 

About a week later, I was at my home in Ferriday when the phone rang one evening just before midnight. It was the Governor. "Do you still have that book about Carter getting elected President?" Edwards asked. "Why?" I said. "Are you planning on doing the same thing and challenging him?" Edwards laughed and told me he was interested in some bedtime reading. "If Jimmy Carter could pull it off, I would think that I certainly could," he said. Thirty minutes later, a state trooper arrived at my home to pick up the book.

.The Governor's wife, Elaine, publicly supported Carter’s opponent, Gerald Ford, for President in 1976. President Carter's popularity was at a low ebb in 1979 as Edwin Edwards considered his future plans. Possible presidential ambitions seemed to be under consideration by the Governor. 

The following month, news reports circulated that the Governor's wife Elaine had accepted a $10,000 gift from South Korean businessman Tongsun Park. The bad publicity derailed any talk of a run by Edwards for higher office.

About three weeks later, the book came back to me in the mail. It had been my intention for the Governor to keep it. There was no note attached, and he never mentioned the book or the presidency to me again.

So does Senator John Kennedy have a serious chance of getting the republican nomination? Right now, the race is wide open and anyone’s guess.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com.

 

 

 

LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA- A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE ON OIL!

Monday, September 21^st, 2026

Baton  Rouge, Louisiana

 

LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA-

A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE ON OIL!

 

 The price of a gallon of gas is off the charts across America.  Even here in Louisiana, the price of gasoline is approaching four dollars a gallon. As you can imagine, there justifiably is lots of complaining. So what to  do? An obvious place to begin in order to lower the price? More domestic production.  More drilling off our coast. Heads began shaking, or I received blank stares. “Drill off our coast? Have all that pollution and major oil spills?  No way!”  I’ve heard these sentiments repeatedly.

 

Marine researcher Humberto Fontova did a major study of oil production and its environmental effects on Louisiana coastal waters and here is what he found.  For fear of oil spills, the U.S. Federal government and various states ban drilling in thousands of square miles off the U.S. Coast. These areas, primarily on the Outer Continental Shelf, hold an estimated 115 billion barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This leaves America‘s energy needs increasingly at the mercy of foreign autocrats, despots and maniacs.

 

Of the roughly 3,700 offshore oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, some 3,200 lie off the Louisiana coast. Yet Louisiana produces one-third of America‘s commercial fisheries and no major oil spill has ever soiled its coast.

On the other hand, Florida, which zealously prohibits offshore oil drilling, had its gorgeous “Emerald Coast” panhandle beaches soiled by an ugly oil spill in 1976. This spill, as almost all oil spills, resulted from the transportation of oil,  not from the extraction of oil. But forget cheaper oil and less pollution for a second. All fishermen and scuba divers out there should plead with their states to open up offshore oil drilling posthaste because of the t fabulous fishing and the explosion of marine life that accompanies the erection of offshore oil platforms.

 

The original plan, mandated by federal environmental “experts” back in the late ’40s, was to remove the big, ugly, polluting, environmentally hazardous contraptions as soon as they stopped producing. Fine, said the oil companies.

About 15 years ago some wells played out off Louisiana and the oil companies tried to comply. Their ears are still ringing from the clamor fishermen put up. Turns out those platforms are going nowhere, and by popular demand of those with a bigger stake in the marine environment than any “environmentalist.”

Every “environmental” superstition against these structures was turned on its head. Marine life had exploded around these huge artificial reefs: A study by LSU’s Sea Grant college showed that 85 percent of Louisiana fishing trips involve fishing around these platforms. The same study showed that there’s 50 times more marine life around  rigs and pipelines in any given year.

The Flower Garden coral reefs lie off the Louisiana-Texas border. Unlike any of the Florida Keys reefs, they’re surrounded by dozens of offshore oil platforms.

These wells have been pumping away for the past 50 years. Yet according to G.P. Schmahl, a Federal biologist who worked for decades in both places, “The Flower Gardens are much healthier, more pristine off the Louisiana coast than anything in the Florida Keys. It was a surprise to me,” he admits. “And I think it’s a surprise to most people.”

“A key measure of the health of a reef is the amount of area taken up by coral,” according to a report by Steve Gittings, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s science coordinator for marine sanctuaries. “Louisiana‘s Flower Garden boasts nearly 50 percent coral cover. In the Florida Keys it can run as little as 5 percent.”

Most of the red snapper you eat in Florida restaurants are caught around Louisiana‘s oil platforms. We see the Florida-registered boats tied up to them constantly. Sometimes us locals can barely squeeze in.

 

So here is the bottom line. We can see the price of gasoline continue to rise, and realistically reach five dollars a gallon or more  And we can stand by as the amount of fishing along the Gulf continues to diminish.  Or the nation can follow Louisiana‘s lead, reduce the price of gasoline, continue an abundance of quality fishing, and dramatically reduce our oil dependence from countries of questionable allegiance. Congress needs o step in.

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com.

 

 

 

A LACK OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, September 14^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

A  LACK OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN LOUISIANA!

A good part of the nation was mesmerized recently over the six-week long Lindsey Clancy murder trial. You will recall that Clancy faced charges for the 2023 deaths of her three children. Her defense argued she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis. The prosecution argued she acted with criminal intent. 

The jury had reached an 11–1 consensus, but could not convince the holdout juror.  Her defense attorneys and numerous supporters called for the holdout juror to be kicked off the jury. The judge, for good reasoning, refused, saying it would be judicially improper and even unconstitutional not to call for a 12-person jury to convict. That’s how the law is determined and enforced in states all over America. WELL, EXCEPT ONE!  And I’m sure you can guess the one outlier state that often operates in the dark ages. That’s us folks, right here in Louisiana.

One of the most outrageous examples of judicial misconduct here in the Bayou State took place in the casino trial of former Governor Edwin Edwards.  The now notorious member of the Edwards jury, juror number 68, was removed for apparently, according to the Times Picayune, being particularly attentive throughout the trial and taking copious notes. From his questions, it seemed that juror 68 was leaning towards acquittal of the governor.

The judge in the case, one Frank Polozola, seemed harshly against Edwards and the other defendants throughout the trial. But no one thought the judge would go as far as removing a juror in the case. The reaction of the Edwards attorney was outlined in detail in Leo Honeycutt’s award-winning biography of Edwin Edwards.

“Red with anger himself, Edwards Attorney Jim Cole jumped from his chair, yelling at Judge Polozola. With the extraordinary actions of a federal judge who had unethically taken the case out of rotation, showing bias that everyone in the community saw, for that Judge to then chop a juror favorable to the defense and reduce the jury below the mandated by the United States Constitution, Cole had lost all respect for this federal judge. Edwards knew Polozola was engineering the verdict.”

Criticism of Polozola’s decision rang out across the legal community. LSU law professor Stewart Green said, "This is a bombshell. It is highly unusual. The jury is really supposed to be his own independent body.”  Former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenthal said Polozola was on thin ice. “The danger is that the message sent to the other members of the jury is not subtle.” Lawbook Professor Lawrence Smith called Polozola’s actions “unprecedented. I’ve never heard of this before.”

Judges are supposed to be neutral. Like referees, they are supposed to interpret the law and do it fairly. After Edwards was convicted, the federal guidelines recommended a sentence of five years in prison. Polozola gave Edwards 10 years. Former Louisiana Governor Dave Treen, a Republican who was defeated in his re-election efforts by Edwards, had this to say about Polozola’s sentence. “Judge Polozola doubled Edwards sentence purely out of vindictiveness. He didn’t like him. That’s not a good reason to double someone’s sentence and I believe, a misuse of power. The trial was certainly dubious.”

So the judge in the Massachusetts trial of Lindsey Clancy got it right. The jury could not reach a consensus. It should take 12 jurors to convict unless there are some extremely detrimental reasons, like health problems of one of the jurors or a juror who seems completely out of control. None of this existed in the Edwards trial. Like Governor Treen said, the judge just didn’t like him. And that’s a poor commentary on unjust verdicts that are found too often in Louisiana,

William Faulkner summed it up well. “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Louisiana’s terrible history of criminal injustice is still with us today.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com.