Changes

In 2013, Judge Self handled a case of workplace violence turned deadly when a 54-year-old fired maintenance man, Robert Earl Walter, was tried in the 26th Judicial District Court for the murder in the second degree of April Ann Thomas Fulghum (1979-2012) of Greenwood in south Caddo Parish, a married mother of two children<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Fulghum&GSfn=April&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=98657858&df=all&|title=April Ann Thomas Fulghum|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref> who was shot to death in her office at a Bossier City apartment complex on October 10, 2012. Police said that Walter fled the scene of the crime in a pickup truck but soon surrendered to Shreveport police.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ksla.com/story/21591247/fired-maintenance-man-found-fit-to-stand-trial-in-deadly-apartment-shooting|title=Fired maintenance man found fit to stand trial in deadly apartment shooting|publisher=KSLA-TV|date=June 20, 2013|author=Carolyn Roy|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref> He was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict of second degree murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspended sentence, and failed in his appeal before the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit. Walter had based his challenge on allegedly insufficient evidence of second-degree murder and proposed that the charge against him should have been manslaughter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cases.justia.com/louisiana/second-circuit-court-of-appeal/2014-49-051-ka.pdf?ts=1403719827|title=''State of Louisiana v. Robert Earl Walter|publisher=Justia.com|date=June 25, 2014|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref>

In 2013, Judge Self handled a case of workplace violence turned deadly when a 54-year-old fired maintenance man, Robert Earl Walter, was tried in the 26th Judicial District Court for the murder in the second degree of April Ann Thomas Fulghum (1979-2012) of Greenwood in south Caddo Parish, a married mother of two children<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Fulghum&GSfn=April&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=98657858&df=all&|title=April Ann Thomas Fulghum|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref> who was shot to death in her office at a Bossier City apartment complex on October 10, 2012. Police said that Walter fled the scene of the crime in a pickup truck but soon surrendered to Shreveport police.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ksla.com/story/21591247/fired-maintenance-man-found-fit-to-stand-trial-in-deadly-apartment-shooting|title=Fired maintenance man found fit to stand trial in deadly apartment shooting|publisher=KSLA-TV|date=June 20, 2013|author=Carolyn Roy|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref> He was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict of second degree murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspended sentence, and failed in his appeal before the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit. Walter had based his challenge on allegedly insufficient evidence of second-degree murder and proposed that the charge against him should have been manslaughter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cases.justia.com/louisiana/second-circuit-court-of-appeal/2014-49-051-ka.pdf?ts=1403719827|title=''State of Louisiana v. Robert Earl Walter|publisher=Justia.com|date=June 25, 2014|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref>

In 2015, Judge Self sentenced Jamaal Lamont Miller (born c. 1982), formerly of [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], [[Georgia]], as a three-time convicted felon to ten years imprisonment at hard labor. Miller's appeal, which claimed that the sentence was excessive, was rejected by the appeal court in Shreveport. In November  2014, Miller pleaded guilty to felony theft of more than $60,000 in merchandise taken between 2012 and 2014 from the Fibrebond Corporation in Webster Parish, his former employer. His multiple previous felony convictions include forgery and financial fraud. Self declined to take into consideration Miller's military service and his multiple college degrees in rendering the sentence. Miller was offered one-year off the sentence for each $10,000 paid in restitution before the sentencing. He did not make any payments in that regard.<ref>{[cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2016/02/25/conviction-10-year-sentence-upheld-bossier-man/80952826/|title=Conviction, 10-year sentence upheld for Bossier man|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=February 25, 2016|accessdate=June 19, 2017}}</ref>  

In 2015, Judge Self sentenced Jamaal Lamont Miller (born c. 1982), formerly of [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], [[Georgia]], as a three-time convicted felon to ten years imprisonment at hard labor. Miller's appeal, which claimed that the sentence was excessive, was rejected by the appeal court in Shreveport. In November  2014, Miller pleaded guilty to felony theft of more than $60,000 in merchandise taken between 2012 and 2014 from the Fibrebond Corporation in Webster Parish, his former employer. His multiple previous felony convictions include forgery and financial fraud. Self declined to take into consideration Miller's military service and his multiple college degrees in rendering the sentence. Miller was offered one-year off the sentence for each $10,000 paid in restitution before the sentencing. He did not make any payments in that regard.<ref{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2016/02/25/conviction-10-year-sentence-upheld-bossier-man/80952826/|title=Conviction, 10-year sentence upheld for Bossier man|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=February 25, 2016|accessdate=June 19, 2017}}</ref>  

In 2017,  [[plaintiff]]s James Wheat and Danny Brinson after their arrests in Bossier City for violating a state statute forbidding panhandling, filled a [[class action]] lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Curtis Whittington and all judges of the 26th Judicial District Court, including Chief Judge Self. The two men allege that Bossier Parish unjustly jails defendants who cannot pay for [[bail]] or a required $40 fee to the office of the [[public defender]]. Nor does Bossier Parish permit defendants to seek a lowering of the bail amount, which is  automatically set by the court. The suit claims that the parish has for years violated a "bedrock principle of our legal system that a person cannot be detained or imprisoned solely for their inability to pay a fee. Such an [[incarceration]] violates the [[substantive due process]] and [[Equal Protection Clause|equal protection]] clauses of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]].”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2017/03/21/lawsuit-claims-violation-constitutional-rights-impoverished/99467604/|title=Lawsuit: Bossier Parish routinely violates rights of poor|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Sarah Crawford|date=March 21, 2017|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=

In 2017,  [[plaintiff]]s James Wheat and Danny Brinson after their arrests in Bossier City for violating a state statute forbidding panhandling, filled a [[class action]] lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Curtis Whittington and all judges of the 26th Judicial District Court, including Chief Judge Self. The two men allege that Bossier Parish unjustly jails defendants who cannot pay for [[bail]] or a required $40 fee to the office of the [[public defender]]. Nor does Bossier Parish permit defendants to seek a lowering of the bail amount, which is  automatically set by the court. The suit claims that the parish has for years violated a "bedrock principle of our legal system that a person cannot be detained or imprisoned solely for their inability to pay a fee. Such an [[incarceration]] violates the [[substantive due process]] and [[Equal Protection Clause|equal protection]] clauses of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]].”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2017/03/21/lawsuit-claims-violation-constitutional-rights-impoverished/99467604/|title=Lawsuit: Bossier Parish routinely violates rights of poor|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Sarah Crawford|date=March 21, 2017|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=