Reading for Justice: From Incarceration to Exoneration

Louisiana incarcerates more people than any other state in the nation. It also has one of the highest exoneration rates in the Untied States.

Two recently-released books, The Jailhouse Lawyer by Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull and Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration by the Historic New Orleans Collection, focus on how Louisiana got to this point and on what happens when the justice system fails.

In a conversation facilitated by Verite News reporter Richard A. Webster, two contributors to Captive State, Andrea Armstrong and Nick Weldon, join Duncan and Cull to talk about how these two books speak to one another, and how we as Louisianans can affect change.

Free and open to the public; donations gratefully accepted. Donations support One Book One New Orleans' year-round work.

This event is sponsored by the Historic New Orleans Collection.

The Andre Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice is accessible to community members who require mobility-related ADA accommodations. Parking near the venue is free, though somewhat limited. The nearest RTA stop is at N. Broad and Columbus.

MEET THE PANELISTS

Andrea Armstrong is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and the Dr. Norman C. Francis Distinguished Professor at Loyola University New Orleans, College of Law, where she teaches incarceration law, constitutional law, criminal procedure, and race and the law. Prof. Armstrong founded IncarcerationTransparency.org, a database and website that documents and memorializes deaths behind bars in Louisiana and supports similar efforts across the United States. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on carceral mortality, healthcare, and labor; the intersection of race and conditions of incarceration; and public oversight of detention facilities. Her research has been profiled by New Yorker Magazine, and has appeared in the Atlantic, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, the New York Times, and Stanford Law & Policy Review, among others.

Sophie Cull is a criminal justice reform advocate who has published on the death penalty, life sentences, and prosecutorial misconduct. As a cofounder of The Visiting Room Project, she helped create the world’s largest collection of filmed interviews with people serving life without parole. Originally from Australia, she began her career in New Orleans, assisting legal organizations defending individuals on Louisiana’s death row.

Calvin Duncan is the founder and director of the Light of Justice program, which is focused on improving legal access for incarcerated individuals. Falsely accused of M**der at the age of nineteen, he endured a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Louisiana prisons for more than twenty-eight years. While incarcerated, he became an inmate counsel substitute, or jailhouse lawyer, helping hundreds of fellow prisoners challenge wrongful convictions and unjust sentences. His efforts have contributed to landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Smith v. Cain (2012) and Ramos v. Louisiana (2020). Duncan holds a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School and resides in New Orleans, where he continues his advocacy on behalf of those still behind bars.

Richard A. Webster is a senior reporter at Verite News and a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. He is currently investigating how Gov. Jeff Landry’s policies have impacted the state’s criminal justice system. After Webster reported on death row inmate Jimmie Duncan, a Louisiana judge vacated Duncan’s sentence. Webster previously investigated allegations of abuse against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, and claims of racial and economic inequities within Louisiana’s Road Home recovery program following Hurricane Katrina. As a result of his reporting, the state dropped $103 million in lawsuits against victims of Katrina.

Webster previously was a member of The Times-Picayune’s investigative team, reporting on numerous special projects including “The Children of Central City,” an in-depth look at childhood trauma through the lens of a youth football team; and “A Fragile State,” a multi-part series on Louisiana’s mental health care system.

Nick Weldon is senior editor at the Historic New Orleans Collection, where he is editor and co-author of Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration (2025) and the award-winning graphic history Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana (2021). He has also been editor for several major museum exhibitions and has written about a wide range of topics for other publications.

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