After being sworn in this week as Los Angeles County’s 43rd district attorney, George Gascon announced that his office would no longer pursue the death penalty, try juveniles as adults, seek cash bail for misdemeanor and non- serious, non-violent felonies, or add gang enhancements to criminal complaints.
“We will work to correct the injustices of the past,” Gascon said. “This is how, in a state that led the way in ‘tough on crime,’ California can lead ‘forgive now’ and turn the tide of mass incarceration and start anew.”
In addition to working to resentence prisoners on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Gascon said his office would reevaluate sentences in thousands of cases that include gang and other enhancements. His prosecutors will no longer file gang or three-strike allegations and will dismiss those allegations on pending matters.
“Experts estimate that at least 20,000 people sentenced to prison from L.A. County are serving sentences far longer than they would receive under the charging policies I announced today,” Gascon said, putting that total at one-fifth of the state’s prison population.
“Punishment must be proportional and in the community’s best interest,” he said during remarks which were live streamed after the swearing-in ceremony.
Gascon said he will prioritize individuals for resentencing who have already served excessive sentences, are convicted of non-violent crimes, are deemed low-risk for release and those who are especially at risk for COVID-19. Gascon said the proposed changes will ultimately benefit taxpayers.
“It will also save California taxpayers billions of dollars,” Gascon said. “Billions of taxpayer resources that can be put back into our communities, into public health, housing and education—the solutions that actually enhance long-term health and safety for our community.”
He said the process will include input from victims.
Anyone sentenced to prison as a child will also be on that priority list, Gascon said, after pledging that his prosecutors will no longer seek to try minors as adults, effective immediately.
Gascon also plans to eliminate cash bail. “It will reinvigorate the presumption of innocence in L.A. County,” he said.
The D.A’s office will no longer file first-time misdemeanor charges for quality-of-life offenses, will increase diversion programs and will offer victims’ services to families whose loved ones were killed in an officer- or deputy-involved shooting, no matter the circumstances.
