Daronshel Blackman walked out of a Baton Rouge courtroom feeling like the master of his own destiny Friday. He emerged from the 19th Judicial District Courthouse with a renewed sense of self, breathing in the liberating air of reclaimed freedom.

“Nothing can touch me now,” he said. “Before, I forgot who I was. And now that I remember who I am, it ain’t nothing nobody can do to me.”

Blackman knows he is fortunate. He could be locked away in a jail cell, but he received a second chance.

He became the first person to graduate from the 19th JDC’s Domestic Violence Intervention Court, an initiative launched in April 2024 as a pilot program to address the parish’s intensifying issue of household abuse.

Officials at East Baton Rouge’s state court collaborated with the District Attorney, the P

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