NEW ORLEANS – A down-ballot race for New Orleans clerk of criminal court has turned personal and contentious, as candidate Calvin Duncan, who spent three decades in prison before his conviction was vacated, faces attacks from Louisiana’s attorney general and the incumbent clerk over whether he was truly exonerated.

Duncan, 62, taught himself law while in prison and struggled for years access his records. He says that makes his quest to be the city’s chief criminal recordkeeper personal.

“I don’t never want to have what happened to me happen to nobody else,” said Duncan, whose murder conviction was vacated by a judge in 2021. He's listed in the National Registry of Exonerations alongside figures like “Central Park Five” member Yousef Salaam , now a New York City councilmember.

But Dun

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