Category: Prosecutors

Charles Stimson and Zack Smith of the Heritage Foundation have prepared an extensive paper on the policies of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón. The web version is here, and a downloadable PDF version is here. Here is the lead paragraph:

George Gascón, the Soros-backed former District Attorney of San Francisco, is now the District Attorney for Los Angeles County. He has, in mere weeks, put into place radical pro-criminal and anti-prosecution policies and is, in a twisted way, the gold standard for rogue prosecutors. The impact of his reckless and dangerous policies is just starting to be felt—and will come into full bloom in the months and years ahead.

Continue reading . . .

Earlier this month, Michael Rushford had this post on a San Francisco case where a habitual criminal killed two pedestrians in a hit-and-run. This Jan. 10 editorial similarly denounces the SF DA’s failure to keep this dangerous criminal locked up and his disingenuous attempt to blame the parole system. From the editorial (emphasis added):

His rap sheet dates back years, but the sum of the nightmare charges and past offenses match nearly every public grievance about rampant drug use, auto break-ins and burglaries, pedestrian safety, and the image of an ineffectual, spinning-door court system. The suspect didn’t deserve to be on the loose.

What is remarkable about this obviously correct statement is that it appears in an editorial of the San Francisco Chronicle, not a place we commonly see calls for tougher crime measures. Continue reading . . .

Hat tip to Prof. Doug Berman for his post here (emphasis my own):

The title of this post is the title of this new article in the latest issue of the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice authored by Rory Fleming.  Here is a part of its introduction:

Part I of this Article will present the results of two interlinked studies on candidate campaign finance in every election with a progressive prosecutor candidate from 2015 through 2019.  The first study examines campaign funding disparities between incumbent prosecutors and progressive challengers, while the second examines the differentials using the Cost Per Vote (CPV) metric.  Part II will discuss the major findings of the two studies, such as how progressive challengers in Democratic primaries seem to only win when a sufficient amount of Soros PAC money is granted, and how higher CPV values translate to greater tensions between local prosecutor offices and their communities.  Part III traces how the Soros-reliant funding model for progressive prosecutors has created an unprecedented crisis of prosecutorial legitimacy in many major urban counties.  Part IV presents public funding for prosecutor selections as one solution that can balance the desirability of competitiveness in prosecutor elections with the need to curb the backlash against prosecutors working to end mass incarceration.

 

Continue reading . . .

In California, as in most states, trial court prosecutors are elected locally, giving the people of a county some degree of local control over how prosecutorial discretion is exercised. Discretion is not unlimited, though, and there are state laws that cannot properly be brushed aside in the name of local policy.

The California District Attorneys Association today released an open letter to the (Los Angeles) Association of Deputy District Attorneys expressing concerns that the policy directives of new LA DA George Gascón go beyond the limits of policy and place deputies in the position of being ordered to violate their legal and ethical obligations. Continue reading . . .

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 . . .

Kern County, California, District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer has this op-ed in the Bakersfield Californian, satirically inviting the habitual criminals of her county to move to L.A.

Are you a convicted felon with a history of violent crime? A murderer? Rapist? Child molester? Human trafficker? Drunk driver who kills? Do you take pleasure in using firearms to ratchet up body counts in all types of crimes? Do you think it unfair that your history of violent crimes makes your punishment for new crimes higher? If so, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Continue reading . . .