At best, it was a joke; at worst, a tool designed to boost the fortunes of the legislators involved. Meanwhile, Louisianans remain in the dark about whether Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards and top officials in the Louisiana State Police hindered justice regarding the death of black motorist Ronald Greene.

This week, it was announced that the Special Committee to Inquire into the Circumstances and Investigation of the Death of Ronald Greene, a House of Representatives select committee convened two or so years ago by Republican House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, had died from neglect, confirmed by GOP Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee with disparagement of the creation he served as chairman. Greene died in LSP custody after a car chase, low-speed crash, and his manhandling from his vehicle and on the ground for nearly ten minutes.

At first, the LSP implied Greene died in the crash, despite an initial media statement to the contrary and conveying information to Edwards that, with the media reports, made clear the actual circumstances. Despite that, for well over a year the LSP slow-walked internal and external investigations into the matter and Edwards and his office did not reveal key information to federal investigators. Indeed, he continued to propagate in public the discredited death-by-crash explanation and, according to Schexnayder, continued to insist privately on the same.

Greene’s death occurred in May, 2019, during Edwards’ reelection campaign that he won narrowly. Widespread revelation of that death in custody after a brutal beating and Edwards’ incuriosity about the matter, if the revealing had occurred prior to the election, not only would have added the incident to a pattern of questionable use of force by the LSP over prior years that had continued during Edwards’ stewardship but also Edwards’ lack of urgency to spur comprehensive investigation would have cost him votes, hence providing the incentive for him in the final few months of the campaign to deflect attention from the incident and his role. Once obscured, even after he gained reelection to preserve political capital he had every incentive to continue keeping the matter out of public view.

For awhile, politicians like Schexnayder and Magee had the opposite incentive. After suppressed audio, then video, recordings came out exposing the beating and therefore the coverup that followed, Schexnayder formed the panel and put his second-in-command Magee at its head. Schexnayder at the time was casting around for another office, with term limitation ending his time in the House at the end of this year; earlier this year he settled on contesting the secretary of state post. Magee, finishing his second term, also had his eyes on another office, an appellate court judgeship. One other panel member, Republican Richard Nelson, eventually would declare a run for governor.

Certainly, this committee service would boost the profile of the assigned representatives, at the very least as a forum to demonstrate reformist and anti-racist credentials (the law enforcement officers recorded pummeling Greene were all white), at most as a catapult to another office. In the case of Magee, it didn’t work; he lost decisively his contest last year.

That the motivation to attract votes seemed present in his case is reflected by cynical, if not hypocritical, remarks Magee made when asked about the demise of the panel. After his failed attempt, it met without having provided to it much new information and without Edwards after a series of half-hearted, barely serious efforts to have him appear in front of it. That was its final breath.

Magee summarized the whole endeavor as “We only make $17,000 a year, and as much as I want to get to the heart of the Ronald Greene matter for justice, I also want my kids to have dinner tonight. We’re not the feds with unlimited resources. Behind the façade, it’s a Mickey Mouse organization trying to do its best.”

But his disparagement of his own doings and those of the legislative chamber he serves in as the second-ranked officer, contrary to his assertion of commitment to justice, betrays a lack of seriousness. Magee is no political innocent eyes opened wide with what happened; his legislative experience and knowing the investigatory capacity at hand would had clued him in that it all was, according to his assessment, a “façade” and “Mickey Mouse” before the first meeting. If he truly had felt that, he would have declined panel service knowing it was all show without the possibility of having enough substance to matter.

And it ignores his own culpability in emasculating the panel. It actually had considerable powers to compel production of information that Magee himself, or a panel majority, could have exercised. For example, upon Edwards’ refusal to testify, the panel could have subpoenaed him with the power to punish him had he refused. That Magee nor they never took such steps proves they never were serious about the pursuit of justice, at least insofar as Edwards’ role in the matter, in the first place. (Schexnayder became speaker only through almost-unanimous Democrat support undoubtedly blessed by Edwards, and Magee only subsequently could have been elected his chief deputy with the same.)

For his part, Schexnayder blew it off as deferring to the federal probe – which predated the panel by nearly two years, so that’s no excuse – and criticized Edwards for refusing to participate. Of course, had he cracked the whip with the panelists, Edwards would have been made to participate.

Thus, it all was a dog and pony show designed with the political futures of the participants in mind, not a genuine attempt to oversee the executive branch. Voters need to remember that when they evaluate whether to satisfy the political ambitions of the likes of Schexnayder and Nelson, and to allow the likes of Magee and others on the panel to continue in their present legislative offices.