I guess Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón knows his future is bleak in the city because I can already hear the screams from the taxpayers.
Gascón’s prosecutors sued him so they could “charge repeat offenders to the fullest extent of the law.” The DA wants to appeal in front of the California Supreme Court:
In June, the Second Appellate District Court upheld portions of a lower court’s injunction that said Gascón cannot refuse to charge three-strike cases, which can dramatically increase prison sentences for some of the most serious repeat offenders.Gascón is hoping to have the court’s order overturned, arguing that it is “draconian,” creates “a dangerous precedent” and amounts to “taking the charging decision out of a prosecutor’s hands.””The district attorney overstates his authority,” the Second Appellate District ruling reads. “He is an elected official who must comply with the law, not a sovereign with absolute, unreviewable discretion.”
The people voted for the three-strikes law in 1995. The law “doubles the felony sentence of an offender with a previous violent conviction and imposes a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life for two previous violent felonies.”
Gascón has to know his chances are slim in front of the California Supreme Court, but he retained Neal Katyal, the nation’s highest-paid lawyer.
Former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal represented Al Gore in 2000. He also charged a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary $2,465 an hour in a bankruptcy case.
The taxpayers are going to pay Katyal’s bill, and it could backfire on Gascón:
“That’s high, but appellate experts like him are in high demand,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and Los Angeles-based trial attorney.Katyal is one of the most accomplished lawyers in the country. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court dozens of times, according to his Georgetown bio. He also faced a storm of criticism in late 2020 after defending two large corporations in a child slavery lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court.”When you hire the former Acting Solicitor General to handle an appeal, it’s a big deal,” Rahmani told Fox News Digital.But the expenditure could amount to a waste of taxpayers’ money if Gascón fails in front of the Supreme Court.Rahmani said Gascón’s chances of prevailing “are low,” noting that the courts have already upheld similar sentencing schemes.”It’s unfortunate that Gascón is spending so much time and money litigating against his own front-line prosecutors and challenging California’s Three Strikes law, which is well-established and supported by the majority of California voters,” he said. “Especially as he faces a likely recall.”
Leslie has done an excellent job documenting Los Angeles’s efforts to recall Gascón, a DA backed by George Soros. The first recall failed, but this second one might just work.
Gascón has come under fire for his soft approach on crime, which has led to a rise in crime in Los Angeles. Let’s not forget that he barely punished a child molester.
Gascón caused outrage when he recently ended the unit that notifies victims when their assailant’s parole hearing.
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