One of the many directives that Los Angeles County District Attorney Gascón ordered on his first day in office was that deputy district attorneys were barred from attending parole hearings. Ignoring pleas from victims’ families, Gascón simply doubled down, declaring that “a prosecutor’s job ends at sentencing.”
His inexperience and lack of duty as district attorney to the residents of Los Angeles County cannot be understated. Deputy district attorneys do not stop seeking justice once a defendant takes a plea or a verdict is reached. We are the voice of the people, and the voice for those who are left voiceless.
Gascón bases his directives, including this one regarding parole hearings, not on facts or experience. They appear to be performative slogans meant exclusively to pander to the media. Gascón has never tried a single criminal case. He has never appeared at even one parole hearing as a deputy district attorney. He has never had to own the pain, suffering and fear of victims; he has never sat down with a victim in a lifer parole hearing as the deputy district attorney.
So, how would he actually know that a prosecutor’s job ends at sentencing? He doesn’t. He is simply making things up as he goes.<
From San Francisco to Los Angeles to Chicago to Philadelphia to Boston, urban dwellers have elected a new breed of district attorneys who style themselves “progressive prosecutors.” In this denomination, the adjective does the heavy lifting. The prosecutors’ campaigns have been funded by the bogeyman of the Right, billionaire leftist George Soros, and animated by extreme left-wing political movements such as Black Lives Matter. The politicization of what was, in its origins, an apolitical law-enforcement function will have serious consequences for public safety and order.
According to the American Bar Association, “The prosecutor serves the public interest and should act with integrity and balanced judgment to increase public safety both by pursuing appropriate criminal charges of appropriate severity, and by exercising discretion to not pursue criminal charges in appropriate circumstances.” The California District Attorneys’ Association puts a finer point on the prosecutorial function: “The primary role of the District Attorney is to protect the community he or she is elected to serve. District Attorneys represent the public and endeavor to improve the public safety by prosecuting those who threaten the well-being of the community and its citizens by breaking the law.”
To judge them by their own words, progressive prosecutors don’t share this understanding of their role. They rarely discuss the importance of preserving public safety and prosecuting and jailing criminals. They do not campaign on safer streets or crime reduction. Indeed, they promise to end prosecution for whole classes of offenses that disproportionately affect minorities (without confronting why that may be), reducing the use of bail to detain pretrial defendants, recommending lighter sentences for convicted felons, encouraging diversion programs instead of prison, and prioritizing so-called restorative-justice schemes in place of traditional notions of retribution and incapacitation. All of this is in the service of a pet progressive project: ending “mass incarceration.” To this end, progressive prosecutors deploy an array of slogans about structural racism, disparate outcomes, and white supremacy. The relationship between this woke rhetoric and preventing an unreformed felon from robbing and raping again is never made clear.
Criminal justice reformers nationwide rejoiced when L.A. County voters chose George Gascón to lead the nation’s largest prosecutor’s office, celebrating a big win in a years-long campaign to replace traditional law-and-order district attorneys with ones intent on change.
And just hours after being sworn in, Gascón delivered to his backers: He announced a slew of policy directives that barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, trying juveniles as adults, attending parole hearings or filing most sentencing enhancements that can increase a defendants’ prison term.
Nearly as quickly, the news instigated a brawl among California’s public prosecutors, with the organization representing 57 out of the state’s 58 district attorneys questioning both the legality and wisdom of Gascón’s mandates. Now, many of the state’s old guard of district attorneys are openly sparring with reformer colleagues in a power struggle that could shape criminal justice in California and other states.
“It’s a showdown of exactly how much power one branch of government has to override other branches,” said Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert, who opposes Gascón’s reforms as overreach thats ignore victims’ rights. “We are elected to enforce the law, not make the law.”
Los Angeles, February 8, 2021 – Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled in favor of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County (ADDA) in a lawsuit against District Attorney George Gascón. The ADDA brought a civil lawsuit against the District Attorney to seek a court ruling to clarify Deputy District Attorneys’ legal obligations in light of the District Attorney’s directives. It is not about the District Attorney’s beliefs on what criminal laws should be applied or not applied in cases.
The court ruled as we expected in holding that the District Attorney cannot order his prosecutors to ignore laws that protect the public from repeat offenders. As detailed in our reply brief, the court ruled that the District Attorney’s policy violated the law to benefit criminal defendants and ordered him to comply with the law. This ruling protects the communities which are disproportionately affected by higher crime rates and those who are victimized.
The District Attorney, as is his right, may choose to appeal the court’s decision, and we respect that. However, as the court ruling makes clear, this decision was based on what the law is and not what an officeholder thinks it should be. We want to thank the many other elected District Attorneys that shared our concerns and strongly supported the litigation that could not be avoided. We continue to respect the District Attorney, and we look forward to working with him and his Administration in furtherance of the interests of justice and our membership.
The ADDA continues to support common-sense criminal justice reform. One of the underpinnings of proposed reform assumes that an entirely new social infrastructure—complete with educational programs, vocational training, counseling, and supervision—will take the place of standard-length prison sentences. However, that infrastructure does not exist. It is difficult to conclude that letting convicted prisoners out early—without the theoretical support system in place—is likely to do anything but expedite recidivism.
Case Documents
To view documents in the case and previous ADDA press releases on this matter, click here.
The law firm Brown George Ross O’Brien Annaguey & Ellis LLP is representing the ADDA.
About The ADDA
The Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) is the collective bargaining agent and represents over 800 Deputy District Attorneys who work for the County of Los Angeles.
