Author: CJLF Staff

Highly Questionable Lawyer Practices Have Found Their Way into Criminal Justice

by · Dec 20, 2021 10:56 am

Guest post by David Boyd

A company has a potential liability that they want off their books. An ethically questionable law firm has the solution. Initiate a class action lawsuit against the company, settle the case quickly with a hefty fee for the lawyers and little to nothing for the class. It does not have to be outright collusion; maybe they just each have incentives, but the incentives are entirely aligned with each other so that they are not on the opposite sides. They are not adversaries in the legal sense, and the true victims get left behind.

Something remarkably similar is going on in criminal justice here in California. Long final death sentences are being undone through the same kind of collusion of interests. Anti-death penalty forces and state funded lawyers have a responsibility to represent their death penalty clients. Progressive prosecutors like George Gascón do not believe in the death penalty, despite the fact that the voters of the State of California recently, twice (2012 and 2016), reaffirmed their desire for the ultimate sanction. Gascón does not have the power of the Governor to commute a death sentence, so what is he doing? He invites a lawsuit. Continue reading . . .

Bonta and Gascón Collude to Overturn All Los Angeles Death Sentences

by · Nov 16, 2021 9:46 am

CJLF issued a press release with the above title this morning. Here is the text:

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón are working together to overturn the death sentences of every condemned murderer convicted in Los Angeles County, according to the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

On November 5, Bonta’s office issued Notices of Withdrawal in at least four death penalty cases before county judges to consider new claims by murderers challenging their sentences. Gascón’s office then told the court that it agrees with (concedes) the murderers’ claims and asked the judge to vacate the death sentences and re-sentence the murderers to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP).

“The Constitution of California says that it is the ‘duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State are uniformly and adequately enforced.’ Attorney General Bonta is doing exactly the opposite. He is facilitating collusive litigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney for the purpose of defeating the enforcement of the law,” said Foundation Legal Director Kent Scheidegger.

Update:  CJLF was on the Los Angeles drive time talk radio John & Ken show discussing this issue, available here.

Continue reading . . .

California Insists That Victim Suffering Must Continue Decades After The Crime

by · Nov 4, 2021 1:14 pm

Guest Post by David Boyd

Our California Constitution guarantees victims of crimes the following right (among others): “To a speedy trial and a prompt and final conclusion of the case and any related post-judgment proceedings.” In explaining the need for this right, our constitution says, “Victims of crime are entitled to finality in their criminal cases. Lengthy appeals and other post-judgment proceedings that challenge criminal convictions, frequent and difficult parole hearings that threaten to release criminal offenders, and the ongoing threat that the sentences of criminal wrongdoers will be reduced, prolong the suffering of crime victims for many years after the crimes themselves have been perpetrated. This prolonged suffering of crime victims and their families must come to an end.”

This right, and its foundational basis, is being routinely violated in its spirit if not its letter. Within the last several years our Legislature as well as our Governor through the secretary of the Department of Corrections has ignored our constitution. Instead of passing laws preserving finality, they have instead created new laws and programs to reopen tens of thousands of cases statewide, thus creating the very suffering that that the constitution directs must end. Continue reading . . .

Recalling the Los Angeles District Attorney

by · Jan 11, 2021 11:01 am

By Charles H. Bell, Jr., Senior Partner, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP

The Los Angeles County Charter specifies that the recall procedure for county elected officials is governed by State law.  (L.A. County Charter, § 50.)  Thus, the process described in the Elections Code (§ 11000 et seq.) applies to the recall of the District Attorney.

The recall of the District Attorney may not begin until more than 90 days after he was sworn into office. (Elec. Code, § 11007.)  George Gascón was sworn into office on December 7, 2020; thus, no recall can be commenced until March 8, 2021, at the earliest. Continue reading . . .