By Cristine Soto DeBerry
Last month, many around the country and the world learned that L.A. County has a wise and courageous District Attorney in George Gascón, after he announced that he would ask a court to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez for the 1989 killing of their parents.
Here’s the good news: the voters of L.A. country have the chance this week to re-elect George Gascón as district attorney, and support the wisdom, courage, and skill I have seen him bring to every role he has held from police officer to police chief to prosecutor.
In this election, voters have a clear choice. Gascón is a lifelong public servant who has dedicated his life to making our communities safer – over the past 40 years, he has served in every facet of public safety, starting as a police officer and police chief before becoming a prosecutor. His opponent Nathan Hochman is a political opportunist who spent the last 20 years of his career defending the wealthy and helping them avoid paying taxes. He is funded by police unions and billionaires and only changed his party to run in this race.
It should be an easy and obvious choice. But for the past four years, unprecedented attacks, obstruction, and vitriol have been hurled at DA Gascón. His opponents have poured millions into two failed recalls, thrown lawsuit after lawsuit at him, and worked to undermine him at every turn. Hochman has been spreading misinformation about DA Gascón for his own political benefit for years, including in a failed race for Attorney General as the Republican nominee just two years ago.
Yet, as he has done his entire career, DA Gascón has continued to show up and serve the people each and every day. In the face of all the fearmongering and hostility, DA Gascón has simply done what we beg our elected officials to do: keep their promises.
Let us not forget the state of Los Angeles when DA Gascón took office in December 2020. It was the height of the pandemic: a stay-at-home order had just gone into effect in much of the state and around 40 Angelenos were dying of COVID-19 daily. The unemployment rate remained above 12 percent in Los Angeles. Homicide, aggravated assault, and motor vehicle theft were on the rise in LA County and statewide before DA Gascón was even in office. Homelessness was up 12.7 percent from 2019 to 2020.
This was a traumatic and destabilizing time, the kind of event that takes years to recover from. It was a daunting moment for any leader to step into. Unsurprisingly, the minute DA Gascón took office, those who worked so hard to prevent him from being elected began placing the blame for every social ill at his feet. Somehow, he was solely to blame for crime even as law enforcement’s clearance rates dropped off after 2019 – last year, they solved just 7.4 percent of property crimes and less than 44 percent of violent crimes.
Yet, DA Gascón was undeterred by the noise and after four years, he has a strong and principled record of success that his opponents have spent millions to make sure you don’t know about.
Most importantly, DA Gascón has prioritized serious crimes. He’s filing violent felony cases at the same rate as his predecessor and is pursuing nearly every organized retail theft case law enforcement has presented to his office. Those who commit serious harm to the community are held accountable.
DA Gascón is also ensuring sentences reflect the specifics of the crime. He has ended the use of blanket sentencing enhancements, where lengthy and costly enhancements were filed regardless of the circumstances of the case. Now, enhancements are filed when warranted and in the interest of public safety. Nearly 15,000 gun enhancements have been filed since DA Gascón took office.
When DA Gascón was elected in 2020, it was amidst a national reckoning with police violence, and he has followed through on his commitment to hold law enforcement accountable. In DA Gascón’s first term, the office has filed five cases against officers who shot civilians and 10 excessive force cases against law enforcement officers. In the 20 years before DA Gascón was elected, the DA’s office filed just one officer-involved shooting case. In total, DA Gascón has filed 129 cases against on- and off-duty law enforcement officers. It’s no wonder that police unions have spent $2.5 million in support of Nathan Hochman.
DA Gascón also said he would end the use of the death penalty and he did. He’s resentenced at least 33 people on California’s death row to life without parole. Nathan Hochman, on the other hand, has vowed to bring back the death penalty, despite all the evidence that it is rife with racial disparities, risks executing the innocent, and costs taxpayers tremendously.
DA Gascón has revisited wrongful convictions and extreme sentences. His Conviction Integrity Unit has exonerated 14 innocent people, some who were convicted as children and most who spent more than 20 years in prison. Thanks to DA Gascón’s leadership, they are now home with their families after nearly 300 combined years of wrongful incarceration. And beyond the Menendez brothers, his Resentencing Unit has resentenced at least 300 people, most of whom were released.
This is just the start of what has been accomplished in the last four years under DA Gascón, and even more can be achieved in a second term, especially if DA Gascón’s political enemies choose to care more about partnership and public safety than pointing fingers. Let’s re-elect DA Gascón this November and continue moving forward towards safer, more just communities.
Cristine Soto DeBerry is the executive director of Prosecutors Alliance Action.