Over the years, Legal Insurrection has recounted many of the failures and tribulations associated with the George-Soros-backed Los Angles County District Attorney, George Gascón.
Sadly, the effort to recall this awful, criminal-friendly prosecutor has failed. But the upcoming election looks promising.
With less than a month remaining before the Nov. 5 election, challenger Nathan Hochman is 30 percentage points ahead of incumbent Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón in a new poll.If the election were held today, according to the survey from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, 51% of likely L.A. County voters would choose Hochman, and 21% would cast a ballot for Gascón. That leaves 28% undecided.
With that in mind, it appears George Gascón may be making a bold play to get entertainment community votes by asking for the resentencing of infamous parent-killers Erik and Lyle Menendez and making them eligible for parole “immediately.”
Apparently, Gascón is a fan of the Netflix series on the subject.
Earlier this month, the 70-year-old prosecutor announced he was reviewing the Menendez convictions, which saw them sentenced to life in prison in 1996. “Given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to be in prison until they die,” he has said.The brothers could be set free, or face a lighter sentence. I am not sure if that’s the right call — but I do have the queasy feeling that Gascón is only using the Menendez case as a last-ditch effort to escape defeat on Election Day.To his credit, Gascón has overseen 14 exonerations of unjustly convicted people. Only I don’t think that’s happening here. Instead, a politician in trouble is exploiting a tragedy. And make no mistake, Gascón is in big trouble….
Rank-and-file prosecutors note that the move is on-brand for Gascón.
“Throughout his disastrous tenure as D.A., Gascón has consistently prioritized celebrity cases over the rights of crime victims, showing more interest in being in the spotlight than in upholding justice,” Michele Hanisee, a deputy district attorney who is president of the union that represents rank-and-file prosecutors, said in a statement.
Gascon’s opponent was quick to address this move.
D.A. George Gascon received the Menendez habeas corpus petition in May 2023 and request for resentencing in February 2024.Yet, he has waited until days before the November 5 election, 30 points down in the polls with articles coming about how his failed policies have led to additional murders of innocent people, to release his recommendation for resentencing.By releasing it now, Gascon has cast a cloud over the fairness and impartiality of his decision, allowing Angelenos to question whether the decision was correct and just or just another desperate political move by a D.A. running a losing campaign scrambling to grab headlines through a made-for-TV decision.
The case is a complex one, and the move to resentence and release is based on evidence of abuse.
During their highly publicized first trial in 1993, prosecutors argued that the murders were committed out of greed, while defense attorneys said the killings were done in self-defense. The brothers admitted they killed their parents but claimed that they had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused by them. Prosecutors suggested those claims were false. A mistrial was declared, and in a second trial, what defense attorneys called evidence of abuse was excluded.In May 2023, the brothers’ appellate attorney, Cliff Gardner, filed a habeas petition to challenge the convictions. The petition cited a 1988 letter from Erik Menendez to a cousin where he detailed alleged abuse by his father as new evidence.Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, has also alleged that he was abused by José Menendez, who was an executive at RCA Records, where the band had a recording contract. Gardner has said these circumstances mean the brothers should have been convicted of first-degree manslaughter, not murder, and should have received shorter sentences that would have seen them released from prison years ago.
No matter the other results of November 5th, as a Californian, I will be happy with stronger crime laws and the fact a more reasonable and rational man with be the LA County DA. For me, that is more win than I am used to getting in elections.
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