Santa Clarita Valley Signal: Jon Hatami | A Prosecutor’s Job Doesn’t End at Sentencing
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.
