NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A New Orleans judge who overturned a gang leader’s earlier conviction and death sentence in a 2006 quintuple killing has given him an 80-year sentence for manslaughter, saying her earlier decision troubled her but was forced by prosecutors’ failure to turn over crucial evidence.
Michael “MikeMike” Anderson maintains his innocence in the killings, which spotlighted a surge of violence after Hurricane Katrina and prompted the return of Louisiana National Guard troops to help patrol New Orleans neighborhoods.
He pleaded “no contest” – accepting a penalty while not acknowledging guilt – to manslaughter as part of a plea agreement with state and federal prosecutors that avoided a federal death penalty trial and accepted three concurrent federal life sentences on racketeering, drug and murder charges.
“Michael Anderson denies any responsibility for those killings,” attorney Richard Bourke said at the sentencing Tuesday. “He maintains his innocence of it. He was willing to take responsibility for things he’d actually done.”
Criminal District Judge Lynda Van Davis gave Anderson five 80-year terms, the maximum sentence, but set them to run at the same time, The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/I9Crzd) reported.
In 2010, Davis ruled that prosecutors in District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office failed to turn over a videotaped interview of a key witness and also failed to disclose that they agreed to a reduced sentence for a jailhouse informant who testified against Anderson.
Davis said Tuesday that she agreed with the jurors who convicted Anderson, and it “troubled me to grant him a new trial.”
“I figured I would be the judge to sign his death warrant, and I wanted to make sure he got a fair trial,” she said.
Anderson’s attorneys said the move was not an admission of guilt in the Central City killings, but allowed him to avoid a federal death penalty trial for his part as an alleged leader of the “Josephine Dog Pound” gang.
In a statement, Cannizzaro’s said his office “promptly” turned over the videotape when prosecutors learned of its existence after Anderson’s trial. Cannizzaro also played up the fact that former District Attorney Eddie Jordan at first dropped the Central City murder case against Anderson, citing conflicting witness statements, before reindicting Anderson.
“Michael Anderson, who savagely shot five young men to death on the streets of Central City, was the beneficiary of every safeguard our system indiscriminately offers to the innocent and guilty alike,” Cannizzaro said.
 
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Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
 
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