TOPS acceptance rates have been on the decline since 2018. In 2023, only 81-percent of eligible students accepted their awards, a ten-year low. Higher Education Commissioner Kim Hunter Reed says there are a couple of reasons for fewer TOPS recipients…
Cut 10 (12) “…to be eligible”
Reed says there’s an effort in the legislative session to increase the amount of TOPS awards.
Baton Rouge Police have charged 18-year-old Karl Nash has been charged with the murder of 21-year-old Daylon Anthony, who was fatally shot outside of an Amazon distribution facility. Sergeant Darren Ahmed says the two men were involved in a verbal and physical altercation. Anthony was pronounced dead at the scene.
State Senator Royce Duplessis has a bill that aims to provide a new legal remedy for people incarcerated under non-unanimous jury verdicts, which were allowed to happen prior to the passage of a Constitutional Amendment in 2018. The bill passed a Senate committee on a 5-1 vote. Promise of Justice initiative Attorney Claude Michael Comeau says it would allow individuals convicted by non-unanimous juries to seek post-conviction relief.
Lafourche Parish District Attorney Kristine Russell focused on Child Abuse cases for 20 years and says when she looks at her non-unanimous verdicts it wasn’t a question of guilt.
Russell is concerned how this proposed law will impact victims, because if there’s a new trial, it will mean they’ll have to face their offender again in court. The bill heads to the full Senate for more debate.