District Attorneys and Sentence Reductions

If the current elected prosecutor decides that a sentence obtained by a predecessor in a criminal case is not a good one (even if authorized by law and legally imposed), can he just move for a reduced sentence? Is the judge obligated to comply?

Ron Matthias, California Senior Assistant Attorney General (Ret.) has this op-ed in the Silicon Valley Voice denouncing Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s motions to reduce all of the death sentences coming from that county (San Jose and vicinity).

A somewhat related issue is presently before the U.S. Supreme Court in Glossip v. Oklahoma. CJLF’s brief in that case is here.