The race for New Orleans' criminal clerkship got fiery this week when the incumbent, Darren Lombard, suggested in a televised debate that an opponent misled voters about his exoneration on murder charges after decades of imprisonment.

The challenger, Calvin Duncan, was fully cleared by a judge in August of 2021 after serving more than 20 years at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for a murder he did not commit, according to court records, Duncan's campaign, a memoir he recently published and a national registry of exonerated individuals .

Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1982, Duncan remained in Angola until 2011, when the Innocence Project of New Orleans helped secure his parole stemming from a plea deal on a lesser charge. His full exoneration came a decade later.

In an

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