Entries tagged with “Los Angeles

Facts & Research

Public Opinion

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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

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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

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Representation

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Sentencing Data

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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

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Prosecutorial Accountability

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Sentencing Data

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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…