Entries tagged with “Los Angeles”
Facts & Research
Public Opinion
,Dec 14, 2020
New Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón Implements Sweeping Changes in Death Penalty Policy
Just hours after taking office, newly elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón issued a series of sweeping changes that ended new death-penalty prosecutions and moved towards reconsidering existing death sentences in the county with the nation’s largest death row. The policy changes signaled the potential nationwide impact of local prosecutor elections in 2020, as new reform prosecutors prepare to take the helm in counties that constitute more than…
Facts & Research
Public Opinion
,Nov 04, 2020
Local Prosecutor Elections Foreshadow Continued Movement Away From Death Penalty
Reform prosecutors made further inroads in the American legal system in the November 2020 general election, unseating prosecutors in several of the most prolific death-sentencing counties in the United States and capturing open seats in major Texas and Florida counties, but falling short in several other high profile…
Policy Issues
Race
,Representation
,Sentencing Data
,Jun 19, 2019
ACLU Study: Los Angeles Death Penalty Discriminates Against Defendants of Color and the Poor
A new study of the use of capital punishment in Los Angeles has concluded that, throughout the administration of District Attorney Jackie Lacey (pictured) the death penalty has “discriminate[d] on the basis of race and against the poor.” The study, released June 18, 2019 by the ACLU, reported that under Lacey’s administration the Los Angeles death penalty has been imposed exclusively against defendants of color, disproportionately for…
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Official Misconduct
,Sentencing Data
,Sep 10, 2015
Southern California Tops Deep South in New Death Sentences Amid Mounting Evidence of Misconduct
Riverside County, California is “the buckle of a new Death Belt,” says Professor Robert J. Smith of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, producing 7 death sentences in the first half of 2015. This, Smith says, is “more than California’s other 57 counties combined, more than any other state, and more than the whole Deep South…