Reform at the LA DA's Office

Prosecutors From All Over U.S. Support District Attorney Gascón Against Attempt to Shut Down LA DA’s Promised Justice Reforms

Celeste Fremon
Written by Celeste Fremon

On November 3, 2020, long time cop, and former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, challenged incumbent Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who was going for a third term, for the job of running the nation’s largest DA’s office.

During the race, Gascón positioned himself clearly as a strong reformer, and made a string of campaign promises outlining what reforms he would make first if he won.

It was a hard fought battle, with most of law enforcement groups backing Lacey, and justice reform groups lining up behind Gascón.

Inside the DA’s office itself, WitnessLA’s sources described one camp wanting to see Lacey get a third term. While others were desperate for someone new.  The latter described a toxic culture of retaliation inside Lacey’s office for anyone who rocked the boat, or worse, tried to report wrongdoing.

In any case, when all the votes were counted, Gascón was the victor, with 53.53 percent to Lacey’s 46.47 percent. In terms of actual votes, that’s 2,002,865 for Gascón to Lacey’s 1,738,617.

George Gascón was sworn in — virtually — on December 7, and right away he announced a list of reforms in keeping with his campaign promises.  The changes were labeled Special Directives, and were posted on the DA’s website.

Among the new special directives were announcements that the DA’s office would no longer charge juveniles as adults, nor would it seek the death penalty. The Gascón-led office would not charge many low-level first time offenders. DA Gascón would eliminate cash bail. (In the case of those accused of murder and other violent felonies, prosecutors would seek detainment, not bail.)

The new DA launched a victim services group, and a supercharged sentencing integrity unit that would, “in good-faith” perform case reviews,” and when necessary “remedy wrongful convictions, and take any remedial measures necessary to correct injustices uncovered, within the bounds of the law.”

And, Gascón would, he announced, for the most part get rid of nearly all sentencing enhancements, including certain parts of California’s three strikes law, the California STEP Act (which lengthens a sentence if the defendant is believed to part of a street gang), 10-20-life,  which drastically lengthens sentences if a gun is involved, even if the defendant never held or fired the gun, plus other sentencing strategies that can add years or decades to someone’s prison term, far in excess of what the range of sentences that the commission of certain crimes already requires.

The matter of sentencing enhancements in particular, caused energetic pushback among certain prosecutors, and victims rights organizations, which caused Gascón to modify his directive on sentencing enhancements for hate crimes, certain financial crimes, elder and child abuse, and sex trafficking, after meeting with the various groups.

The pushback, however,  ramped up quite a few notches on Wednesday, December 30, 2020, when the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys filed a lawsuit with the intention of preventing Gascón from following through with his sentencing enhancements directive, which the LA ADDA characterized as radical and plainly unlawful.

“While an elected District Attorney has wide discretion in determining what charges to pursue in an individual case, that discretion does not authorize him or her to violate the law or to direct attorneys representing the district attorney’s office to violate the law,” said Michele Hanisee, President of the ADDA, in a statement issued the day the lawsuit was filed.

But are George Gascón’s reforms really unlawful and a threat to public safety?

A group of 65 prosecutors — working and retired — from all over the U.S. have said no and no.

This broad group of prosecutors expressed their views in the form of an Amicus Brief in support of Gascón and his team in the legal conflict, which is to be heard on February 2, 2021 in the court of Judge James C. Chalfant.

(You can read the brief for yourself here: Gascon Amicus Brief.)

“Historically, prosecutorial discretion has too often been used to impose harsher penalties that have particularly impacted people of color and harmed communities, not made them safer….” wrote former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti on the topic in separate a statement.  “While some are having difficulty accepting [DA Gascon’s] changes, there is only one elected official in the DA’s office.”

The new brief dives much further into the issue.

The “Amici have a deep understanding of the important role that prosecutorial discretion plays in the criminal justice system,” the brief states in its opening, and they are “extremely concerned that the injunction sought by Petitioner would undermine, in unprecedented fashion, the longstanding discretion, constitutional authority and responsibility of elected prosecutors.”

So, what does an elected prosecutor get to decide?

According to the new brief and its 65 signatories, the nation’s elected prosecutors — for better and sometimes for worse — have “broad discretion over whom to prosecute and what offenses to charge,” which also includes “the ability to determine what penalties and sentence to seek.”   That means they can choose whether to pursue available sentencing enhancements, in order to best protect community safety and advance justice, according to the nationwide group of prosecutors.

“This authority,” states the brief,  “is enshrined in separation of powers principles included in most state constitutions, including California’s, and their federal counterpart.”

Furthermore, according to the brief,  an elected district attorney “must be able to guide the exercise of discretion by his deputies and the use of inherently limited criminal justice resources through transparent and straightforward policies.” Indeed, write the national group of prosecutors,  the district attorney is elected by the community to do exactly that – “and is accountable to the voters for those decisions.”

Although the case, on the surface of it, just pertains to Los Angeles County, the issues it raises, have national significance, hence the sign on of the 65 other prosecutors—present and past.  The brief, also points to the fact that, a decision on this lawsuit, has national consequences.

“We are deeply troubled by the attempt by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County to usurp the power of the elected district attorney and use the courts to override the lawful, discretionary policy decisions of an official, chosen by the voters of Los Angeles, to transform the criminal justice system in that community,” states the Amicus Brief.

These reforms,  “include ending death penalty prosecutions, the use of money bail, and the criminalization of mental illness and homelessness, as well as curtailing lengthy prison sentences and the use of sentencing enhancements,” write the authors of the brief, Michael Romano, director of the Three Strikes Project of Stanford University Law School, and Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of U.C. Berkeley School of Law.  These are all “objectives consistent with the boundaries of the legal system and the sound exercise of prosecutorial discretion.”

The Los Angeles community elected him, they write, “over opposition by the ADDA, to carry out these promises and bring a new vision to the Los Angeles criminal legal system.”

Miriam Krinsky​, ​Executive Director of ​Fair and Just Prosecution​ (the organization that coordinated the brief) and a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, as well as the former Executive Director of the Los Angeles County’s Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence and former President of LA’s Ethics Commission, also pointed to the will of the voters.

“Thousands marched in the streets of Los Angeles over the past few months demanding a transformation of LA’s criminal legal system, and millions of voters elected DA ​Gascón with a mandate of reform​,” said ​Krinsky.

“Efforts to prevent the duly elected District Attorney from implementing the exact vision and approach to criminal justice overwhelmingly supported by LA County voters – and increasingly embraced by communities around the nation – aren’t just an attack on prosecutorial discretion, they’re an attack on our community and our democratic process.”

(This month that seems to be a trend.)

And in case Judges Chalfant, who will be hearing the issue on Feb. 2, might miss the point, the brief restates the overriding issue with emphasis.

It should not escape the court’s attention, wrote the brief’s authors, Chemerinsky and Romano, that although the matter is presented “as a purported issue of legality and prosecutorial ethics, the instant action is, at bottom, an attempt by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys to harness the authority of the court to prevent District Attorney Gascón from making policy decisions that the deputies do not agree with.”

Court intervention here would set “a dangerous precedent,” the authors write thus “allowing Petitioner (who opposed Gascon’s election) and unelected line prosecutors, to strip the elected District Attorney of the autonomy to make decisions around the safety and well-being of the community. And any such decision would also necessarily erode the rights of local voters to have a say in that vision.”

We look forward to finding out how  Judge Chalfant views the matter on February 2.    So….stay tuned

55 Comments

  • So you now have DA’s from all over the country agreeing that prosecutors don’t have to follow the law. What the hell is going on with this country? I am know legal wiz, but isn’t that their ONLY JOB? Uphold and enforce the state constitution and the US constitution. They put their hand on a frickin bible and swear to it on their first day. These are sad and scary times when criminals have more rights than law abiding taxpaying citizens.

  • “Sometimes the threat is real. Now we get to true pain and politics. Change is resisted because it can hurt. When new technologies displace old ones, jobs can be lost; prices can be cut; investments can be wiped out. The best thing leaders can do when the changes they seek pose significant threat is to be honest, transparent, fast, and fair. For example, one big layoff with strong transition assistance is better than successive waves of cuts”

    https://hbr.org/2012/09/ten-reasons-people-resist-chang

  • Funny, no mention of D.A.’s outside L.A. county who also oppose Gascon. D.A.’s from Sacramento and San Diego to name a few. But I guess that’s doesn’t support the narrative does it? Also ignored was San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed’s opinion of her former D.A. (Gascon) which was also pretty awful. Witness la acts like this guy’s campaign manager, kind of disgusting really.

  • Editor’s Note:

    Dear “Boy am I glad I am gone,”

    Thanks for the good catch! It’s fixed now.

    C.

  • Of course several DA’s in the state of California are resoundingly “NOT in Support” of Gascons’s mysterious, Black Magic inspired, “the research has shown” data he repeatedly refers to as the basis for his “legal reasoning” and justification not to abide by his oath of office and uphold all laws. He doesn’t make the law, he’s supposed to enforce them and repesent the “People” and advocate for the victim in our adversarial criminal justice system. He’s not supposed to be the “friend of the Public Defender Office” and serve to represent the interest of criminals?

    I’m curious, are all the DA’s from across the country also disciples of and receiver of election campaign support by George Soros? If so that says a lot for their non-biased support of their Comrade. The vote of no confidence by DA’s in the state of California have real weight in my mind, not the opinion of DA’s in other states whose legal system is different and frankly not relevant to ours. Federalism in action right?

    Oh yeah, San Francisco is such a better place to live thanks to Gascon (sarcasm).

  • Next article should be. Why is the probation department considering deploying field probation officer back in the institutions. Running out of federal money? Many many county staff, continue to test positive and now the department wants to send them into institutions, where their is no need with the # so low and kids no longer being detained.

  • Celeste. Have you ever thought that you may be on the wrong side of history?
    That your continued march to defunding police and social justice nonsense may actually lead to more victims?
    Does it bother you if one of your mercy projects leads to a murder, rape, assault?
    I sure hope you can live with yourself.

    The afterlife will shed much light on good and evil.
    You seem like a good person, I hope you can justify what you’re doing.

  • Atheist? You can do wonders when you don’t believe in God, Buddha, Allah, Brahma or some form of higher being or an afterlife. It’s all about the here, now and all important me, myself and I in their eyes. No, the editor and many of her followers are atheist. Communist don’t believe in God either, they pledge their allegiance to the party leader or fuhrer instead.

  • So Miriam Jackie Lacey was threatened, endured early morning protests at her home and was challenged as to her prosecutorial decisions. Were those action attacks on prosecutorial discretion? The deputy district attorneys lawsuit is challenging Gascon in Court and not on his front door.

    If it is okay to challenge Lacey regarding her prosecutorial discretion than its okay to challenge Gascon.

    In this democracy the right place to ask for redress is the courts.

  • Dope of Reality, thank you sharing your conspiracies and warning us that Jews are taking over the world. Racist and anti-semite. No doubt you think The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is nonfiction. We need more officers like you.

    Jason, of course they have to follow the law. If it were as simple as your analysis leads to believe you could just report them to the state bar and they may lose their job and liflihood. What they are talking about is prosecutorial discretion, which they have always had. That is why they overcharge the brothers. I doubt you complained then.

    Silda, “compelling attorney?” What the hell is that? You, no doubt, know many compelling attorneys. Please share.

    ReaLOL, what an idiotic question. To think such nonsense one would have to start from the premise that you are correct with your warped view of the world. I am sure Celeste does not lose sleep over such nonsense. At most, she rolls her eyes when she reads comments such as yours or maybe gets annoyed that for some reason her blog attracts the very people that are the subject of the wrong-doing she writes about. Have you ever thought that you are bringing about pain and suffering when you support the police. After all, some of the fine men in uniform you claim are heroes molested little cadets, others raped women, some are drunk drivers, some are thieves ripping off the city or county with their fraudulent disability claims, some lie on the stand, some costs us millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for the negligence, and sometime wanton disregard of life, and some, like Dorner, even kill other cops. And, we pay these people to catch people who do they things they do. What could be more criminal. These are actual cases. I can go on.

    Just to let you know, if there is an afterlife, I will be up there, or down there, talking crap about crooked and racist cops there, too. You are not one of those fundamentalist abortion-is-murder high holy rollers, are you?

    Seeking Truth, no she was not threatened. Just because you say it, does not make it so. This is a free country and people can protest at her home if they want to, or at mine or yours. If you had gotten your facts straight, you would know that it was Lazy’s hubby that threatened others.

    Celeste, please, please, please, I would love to hear from you. I wonder what you think attracts people to this site that stand for everything you probably abhor, who are probably some of the same people who engage in the wrongdoing you highlight in some of your pieces. And, why despite all of their whining and complaining, they keep coming back for more. I’m curious what you think. I hope you aren’t like Pence and Linsey and are afraid that they will come after you if you tell them how you feel. Oh well, at least my racist, paranoid, xenophobic, antisemitic friends on the site make it fun and interesting.

  • Editor’s note:

    Dear “Concerned county employee,” I’d like to know more about this. I know probation was sending field people into the halls, but I thought that had stopped. Based on Probation’s latest COVID-19 report, right now I see a concerning percentage of kids in the halls have the virus, and around another 50 percent are isolated because they’ve been exposed. Please contact me directly if you would be willing to talk more — on background, of course. celeste@witnessla.com.

    In any case, thanks for your comment.

    C.

  • Everyone appears to be missing the whole point behind D.A Gascon’s reform policies. This is about “fixing” a system that has been inherently broken from its origin. Some are using the pain of victims to restrict a narrative that is much broader. If a “criminal” gets 7 years for a robbery, he has not gone without punishment. He shouldn’t get 24 years for that same robbery because he used a gun and in a member of a gang. After all the robbery already includes the gun. Instead of 3 years for residential burglary, people are getting 21 years due to enhancements. Every crime isn’t a death sentence. Rehabilitation IS possible and is actually happening more and more. Recidivism is in part, a reflection of “the system” and not merely because people who commit crime are career criminals. Remember… before the last decade or so, felons couldn’t get jobs once released from prisons. Transitional housing and Rehabilitational programs didn’t exist then as they do now. A lot of people get out of prisons now and are productive contributors to their communities. Gang reform is happening from the inside now. I can go on and on but there’s not enough time in a day to elaborate on all the “reasons” why this change is so necessary. Decades in prison is not the answer for every problem and every crime

  • For mass incarceration to be politically feasibly unwound, it must be replaced by mass rehabilitation. I litigated for YEARS on behalf of my parolee clients against California corrections personnel, to try to compel my home state to seriously REHABILITATE parolees while they were in custody and beyond. I was zealously OPPOSED by Jerry Brown’s and Kamala Harris’s California AG’s office. I presume because they were beholden to the same unionized police and corrections personnel who are now opposing DA Gascon’s reformist efforts.

    Sadly their obtuseness led to countless tragedies such as the one linked just below in Sacramento on Jan. 19th when a parolee resisting a vehicle search shot and killed a police dog and then an officer. https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2021/01/19/cal-expo-deputy-adam-gibson-k9-riley-killed/

    Sometimes in order to solve a problem you have to make it bigger. That is the case with criminal justice and corrections reform. On June 21, 2013 I formally proposed Gov. Brown take the first step on this 1,000 mile journey, by hiring a reform-minded warden at CIM in Chino, where Kenyon Scudder (author of Prisoners Are People) had (7 decades ago!) pioneered serious rehabilitation and proven it works. See https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ilXuTzT1mlZFY2T29DLWxRZ3c/view?usp=drivesdk Brown refused. Harris later did likewise.

    “When will we ever learn?” Hopefully someday “Governor Gascon” will listen.

  • James, I think most people would agree that we need criminal justice reform and that many sentences are excessive. No one is complaining about Gascon’s directives including no longer charging juveniles as adults or not prosecuting lower level crimes. What they are upset about is how he’s prosecuting violent crimes or more specifically murder cases. Murderers do deserve longer sentences than someone who commits burglary or robbery. Ultimately Gascon has decided that even life without parole is off the table for even the worst of the worst, and that does put public safety at risk.

  • These two soup sandwiches got eachother dirty!
    You better believe the “No Investigation” will be an unresolved matter…..Steady hands pulled his Captain to the front of the line. mmmm?

  • Hey cf, our own little Rachel doezal (or talcum x whatever you prefer) does criticizing a jewish person make you an antisemite? Cause I seem to remember your hero Malcom x criticizing a lot of jewish people, heck the whole state of Israel for that matter, was he an antisemite?

    George soros is a very rich and powerful person, who uses his wealth towards political causes, does the fact that he is a Jew put him above scrutiny? Now that’s privilege.

  • BS, recidivism right now is skyrocketing specifically due to the reduced and no bail that’s being afforded violent criminals who go out and commit more violent crimes in places like Chicago, Philly, New York, Houston and Baltimore. Last year 314 cops were shot and you’d think we’d here about it here, but be serious, not part of the deal. It’s only by luck that more weren’t killed and you’d think on a supposed Social Justice Website there would be from time to time some mention of the killings caused by those doing the killings in our most at risk neighborhoods and we all know what they look like but nope, it’s amazingly quiet here about that isn’t it? Not cops doing it so….
    These DA’s don’t give a damn about that either, never have.

  • How many robberies or other crimes did this defendant commit prior to getting caught? Incapication for serious crimes is what I expect in my justice system. If you want to see what a justice system looks like without incapacitation, go join the Army and visit some other countries (and not those homogeneous European ones)…

  • Finally an article that doesn’t begin with the words: “Relative of decapitated child/slain officer heartbroken over DAs deadly new directives.” I’m all for fair and balanced reporting, but after seeing the same headline on the FoxNews website for nearly thirty days in a row I’m starting to get suspicious. American Conservatives shout loudly when it comes to law and order, but what could be more fair and balanced than a duly elected official carrying out the will of the people who elected him? George Gascon ran on a platform of criminal justice reform and he won fair and square. No amount of lawsuits will change that fact, no judge on the planet would soil their record by attempting to limit the power of an elected official, and no number of FoxNews headlines will change the reality in which we now live.

  • Childish Fool,

    Back to pretending that being a Jew is a shield against criticism, I see. Sorry, but that doesn’t hold water. Soros is a meddlesome globalist who has been funding leftist candidates, such as Gascon, all over the country. This is a matter of public record. Those candidates, including Gascon, are better suited to be Public Defenders than District Attorneys, but there’s no prestige in that. DAs are supposed to protect the public, not scumbag criminals. Gascon is going to either knock off his SJW nonsense or get ridden out of town on a rail.

  • Well….here we go again. The Obama justice department had a hard-on for the Sheriff’s Department during that administration and it looks like the Biden one will pick up the pitch fork and carry the torch. At that time the focus was on the Custody Division which was turned upside down and turned into a mess. This go around, with the whole defund the police mantra being in vogue, is coming just in time as the Department faces record retirements, no academy classes going through, record increases in violent crimes and a pro-criminal right DA.

    Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles are all quickly circling the drain as [WLA edit] cities people used to refer to as “Good Places to Live”.

  • Hahahaha
    If being smart and answering questions was a requirement, we’d have no Democrats in office.
    Nothing to see here but some crocodile tears and nanny state ass wiping.

  • Allow CF to post his drivel without care.
    Such a typical liberal move today, de-platform, and try to silence anyone who disagrees with you.
    Sucks when you realize you can’t silence people who are smarter than you.

  • I guess that same arguement did not apply to former President Trump who was elected by the people to carry out their will? He was resisted, obstructed and impeded by the media, state governors, appellate courts, Democratic Party and the US House of Representatives every day he was in office. I guess the former President was not to be afforded the same latitude as DA Gascon is to be afforded while in office?

    Hypocrisy at work.

  • You’ve made it clear you didn’t care that Dorner killed other cops or their kids, remember scum? You spread nothing but hate and racist tripe here like the cowards do who use the internet daily, but slink along in the shadows when out. We who post the truth about the system give way more than we take here. Back under that rock Little Man.

  • Funny how your smokescreen will never cover-up the attemped coup by Trump or his pending impeachment.

    Your Boy lost and he’ll never hold office again anywhere for the remainder of his life.

    Btw, Obama is “living his best life”…

  • President Trump did loose due to a fixed election. To believe the process was clean and not without a “hand tipping the scales” is naive and ignorant. I suggest you watch the documentary, ‘Seattle is Dying”, to get an understanding how an entire city’s political and judicial system can collude into one toxic stew to push forth their chotic agenda. Those who oppose are “drummed out of town” using the means and tools at the states disposal.

    Why the effort to make sure President Trump doesn’t hold office ever again? Why such an irrationsl fear of one man? If his opponents are doing a good job for the people why would they be afraid of him running for office again? Very telling.

    Just keep drooling over the Biden/Harris and just waite until an unfavorable policy decision comes out that the spin and media machine can’t keep concealed. Despite the Democrats best efforts, social media works both ways. Let’s see how long the honeymoon period last then? The handling of the US Mexico border will be an interesting and visible powder keg that’s already blooming. Millions of immigrants illegally entering the country during a time of Pandemic with millions of Americans already out of work and no plan to get the economy moving again?

  • Prosecutors from the state of California have something to say about Gascon’s reforms too, imagine that.

    https://amp.fresnobee.com/news/local/article248705325.html

    See, you don’t have to solicit the opinions from prosecutors all over the country. Some right here in his very own backyard , his true peers have an opinion about their fellow DA’s “reimagininig”of the state’s criminal justice system which they know very, very well.

  • It stopped for most back in Nov., but not all. The rumors are that we will start back in the institutions in the next few days. The department, much less the union have told us anything about it. However, some of us have been told “off the record”, that we are going back, starting 1/31/21. This is a deadly game, that the county, department and union are playing with the youth and its county employees. I fear for the health of all the youth, my coworkers, the community, my family and my own. I fear that I could get the virus and take it home and impact my parents, my spouse and my own kids.
    The county had listened to advocates about our contact with youth in the probation system and we have backed away. Eliminated the at-risk program, refer the youth to programs and make every effort not to detain. However, the department is okay with sending (additional) field staff with the same youth, that they don’t want us having contact with and possibly expose them to something that we may take into the institution without knowing. We cannot social distance in the institutions, we are in closed quarters and the youth come up to the staff all the time. We need someone to step in and stop the department from once again deploying field staff. If not, those numbers of the youth currently with the virus, will continue to increase. Our first deployment, I recall seeing units with 6 staff for 5 kids. Some of us told, that we were saving jobs, that’s why we were deployed. At the end, the county was just claiming FEMA money and didn’t care for our health or our jobs.

  • GET PEOPLE DIRTY by starting investigations and a little back door dealings. A tactic to keep those onto your bullshit from moving forward (TRY to silence them). It’s very simple to figure out that those that support the SHIT SHOW are acting cast members! You should have been smarter as to who you placed near those you see as a threat!!

    A bit of a “I got shit on you” tug of war at the expense of the very people who placed you there. And that YOU are suppose to represent. A bunch of self serving shit bags.

  • Question, did those running/working the SHIT SHOW keep an electronic log of their actions or a PAPER LOG?

  • Didn’t you just read what the amicus brief said? An elected DA has discretion to apply those laws in the interest of Justice which is right now reforming excessive sentences . Previous DA’s have done the same thing but in the opposite direction, tough on crime harsh sentences.

  • Was there anything illegal about former district attorneys Lacey and Steve Cooley who enforced harsh sentencing and use your discretion to do it. So it’s okay to do it in the opposite direction is that what you’re saying? The California supreme Court made a 1996 decision saying that elected district attorneys in California have broad discretion to enforce and apply the law and so do judges. And as far as George Soros is concerned police unions and the prison guard unions up and down the state of California have donated way more money than George George Soros ever did. But that’s okay right because you’re the police.

  • And by the way he is representing the people of Los Angeles they voted for him with more than 260,000 more votes than they did for Lacey

  • Re Trump – Bullroar he was resisted and obstructed.

    Repubs had the House and Senate and Trump either bullied or ignored the media. He should have handily succeeded. Problem is he’s all show and no go. Lots of bluster – no substance, no real plans. Even judges he appointed ruled against him. Judges are funny that way – the vast majority believe in following the law and legal process. Unlike Trump.

  • Update: deployment starts this upcoming Monday. I guess Covid no longer exists. Last time I checked none of the line staff have been vaccinated. Safety and health are not the Counties and the departments #1 priority. Leadership has to be honest with the public and its own employees.

  • William, you say that ending life without parole “put[s] public safety at risk.” But, you don’t give me any reason to believe it.

    If you review the evidence you’ll see that life without parole is NOT necessary to ensure public safety. Most Western European countries, many of which have significantly LOWER murder rates than the US, grant convicted murderers parole hearings within 15 years. (Rhine 2015). The American Model Penal Code, which is drafted by a NON PARTISAN group of legal scholars, also advocates for automatic right to a parole hearing after 10-15 years.

    Also, just FYI: I’m fairly confident that Gascon has NOT taken life without parole off the table as a blanket matter. In fact, his directives say very little about about life without parole beyond that he will not pursue it for juveniles. Requesting a sentence of life without parole for a juvenile requires prosecuting the juvenile as an adult. You just said that’s something you don’t support. So what gives?

  • “Liflihood?”I almost thought you were of average intelligence for a liberal until I read that doozy! Lmao

  • Are you kidding? The president constantly gets challenged in court. You can’t only love checks and balances when the person you didn’t want to be elected is in office. That’s the way this country works. Deal with it!

  • But harsher sentences for criminals is erring on the side of caution. And that is only done to protect the public from becoming the next victim of one of these scumbags (Remember, there is way more money in defending them!). We’re not talking about parking tickets for choirboys here!

  • When Gascon “encourages” prosecutors not to charge a crime across the board that is not discretion. That is absolution from a crime that is on the books.

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