The Louisiana bill, which recently advanced out of a state Senate committee and will now head for a floor vote, would prevent these warrants from being used against survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
It is most cruel way to try to entice testimony from someone,” New Orleans City Councilwoman Helena Moreno, a supporter of the legislation, told senators in a hearing on Tuesday, according to the Times-Picayune.
State Sen. JP Morrell, a Democrat from New Orleans, sponsored the bill after a watchdog group pointed out that the city’s district attorney temporarily jailed at least two women in 2016 who had survived rape and domestic violence.
This tool is very, very necessary for us to use on rare occasions,” Charles Ballay, head of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, told senators of material witness warrants in the committee hearing this week.
The group estimates that out of 750,000 cases from 2012 to 2017, roughly 150 material witness warrants were approved by judges in Louisiana, and that few of those were against sexual assault or domestic violence victims.