(The Center Square) – A report released this year by the Louisiana Supreme Court shows the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office tried more criminal jury cases than all but two prosecutors’ offices in the state, despite having fewer resources than similar or larger jurisdictions.
District Attorney James Stewart, who is running for reelection in November, says productivity and falling crime statistics show his office is focused on public safety.
Jury trials conducted in Caddo Parish District Court increased by approximately 121% over the past decade, according to data released by Stewart’s office.
Stewart sat down with The Center Square for an hour addressing those and other public safety topics for Shreveport and surrounding communities. His opponent, Sen. Alan Seabaugh, was unavailable for an interview at the time of publication.
Stewart’s office took 64 cases to trial in 2025, which ranks third in the state in criminal jury trials but his staff of 35 ranks sixth in authorized assistant district attorneys, according to the report and other state legislation.
“It’s important to victims of crimes and the families of victims of crime to know that we are willing to try cases … when we have to,” Stewart told The Center Square. “And it’s also important in dealing with defendants who try to wait it out to understand that at some point we’ll get you in trial.”
East Baton Rouge, which has 55 authorized assistant district attorneys compared with Caddo’s 35, conducted 22 criminal jury trials in 2025, according to the Louisiana Supreme Court report. That’s 57% larger but 65% fewer trials.
Jefferson Parish, meanwhile, used 62 attorneys to bring 68 cases to trial – that’s 77% larger while only bringing 4 more cases to trial.
Based on volume, Stewart said, the state should be authorizing a total of 54 attorneys for Caddo Parish.
Based on authorized staffing, Caddo averaged about 1.8 criminal jury trials per assistant district attorney in 2025, compared with about 1.1 in Jefferson Parish and 0.4 in East Baton Rouge.
“We’re working above our weight class,” he said. “Quantitatively or numerically, we’ve tried as many cases as anybody in the state, even though our office is smaller than some of the larger offices.”
Criminal justice researchers report that trial counts do not necessarily measure effectiveness. Criminal cases can be resolved through plea agreements before trial, and studies have found that many jury trials end in acquittals or convictions on lesser charges, according to a report from Duke Law School.
Stewart acknowledged that cases taken to trial are one of several metrics used to measure effectiveness.
The rate of convictions is another.
Stewart said his attorneys have a 93% conviction rate over the last five years, which could not be independently verified because the DA’s office rejected The Center Square’s public records request for data related plea deals, acquittals and guilty verdicts.
“We have no existing list, report, or record that contains the information requested. Period. The public records law does not require a public body to sort information contained throughout its office as an official way, or run any special report,” Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Edwards wrote in an email response.
The Center Square reviewed publicly available reports released by the Office of the State Public Defender, a document that tracked 51 Caddo Parish felony trials in 2025.
According to the Public Defender’s report, 96% of their felony trials resulted in guilty verdicts and 4% were found not guilty. For the most serious cases, those facing life without parole, no one was acquitted, the report said.
It’s unclear which verdict was reached in the remaining 13 cases not documented by the report or if those defendants were represented by a private defense attorney.
Shreveport’s crime rate
Asked for a response to residents’ concern about crime in Shreveport, Stewart argued that crime statistics have improved.
“Years ago, people claimed that Shreveport was on some list of top 10 most dangerous places in Louisiana,” he said. “We’re not on those lists any more. “
Most categories of crime have gone down “tremendously, particularly violent crime,” Stewart said.
From 2021 and 2025, the city’s homicide rate decreased 54%, according to data released by the Shreveport Police Department, whose monthly reports to the City Council support his statement that most major crimes are statistically lower this year.
In 2021, Shreveport Police reported a historic high of 91 homicides across the city.
“I think that’s because in the criminal system we worked very hard to get those numbers down,” Stewart said, adding praise for the efforts of police, prosecutors, courts and other public safety partners.
Public Information Officer Chris Bordelon said the department’s crime statistics are based on data collected through the Caddo Parish 9-1-1 emergency communications system, which tracks calls received by law enforcement and fire agencies.
The Center Square reviewed Bordelon’s data collection process, which relies on dispatcher-assigned tracking numbers that are categorized by type.
Stewart rejects suggestions that his office or parish law enforcement are soft on crime as an “unfounded political statement” because the data says the opposite.
“It’s just basically not true,” he said, adding that Caddo Parish accounts for a larger share of Louisiana’s incarcerated population than its share of the state’s residents.
“In this year alone, we’ve had five to six second-degree murders. I think all but one got life sentences,” Stewart said. “Plus a life sentence on an aggravated rape. That’s just in the first six months.”
Caddo Parish accounts for 4.9% of the state’s total population, yet its share of incarcerated individuals is 8.1% of state prisoners, according to a 2024 Status of State and Local Corrections Facilities and Program Report.
“I think this office is one of the better offices in the state,” he said. “I think when you grind and do the work, you don’t look up to see where you rank among people. We’re just trying to maximize our efforts and be productive.”
