Los Angeles district attorney allows prosecutors to seek death penalty again

Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman is allowing county prosecutors to seek the death penalty again, reversing a ban put in place by his predecessor and making good on a campaign promise.

The county prosecutorial office said on Monday the death penalty will be pursued only in “exceedingly rare cases” and the “most egregious”.

“I remain unwaveringly committed to the comprehensive and thorough evaluation of every special circumstance murder case prosecuted in Los Angeles County,” Hochman said in a statement.

The California governor, Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on the death penalty in 2019, and the last prisoner executed in the state was in 2006. The governor’s term ends in January 2027 and he isn’t eligible for re-election.

Under the new policy in Los Angeles, defense attorneys will be given opportunities to share information about defendants when the death penalty is under consideration, and survivors left behind by murder victims will also be able to share their views.

Hochman said regardless of what the governor does, as long as the death penalty was allowed under California law, “the district attorney has to do his job and put the death penalty on the table for consideration”.

He pointed to two examples of extreme cases where the death penalty could be an option, both in different states: the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting and the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting.

Under California law, the death penalty can only be sought if someone is charged with murder with special circumstances, which can include killings where there are multiple victims or if the victim is a law enforcement officer.

Removing the death penalty was one of the first changes implemented by former district attorney George Gascón when he took office in 2020. In a special directive, he called it “inextricably intertwined” with racism and said executions did not deter crime. He also said his office would conduct a thorough review of all condemned prisoners from Los Angeles county with the goal of lifting their death penalty sentences.

Gascón was ousted by Hochman last year, reflecting growing discontent in the state with progressive district attorneys and criminal justice policy changes.

During his campaign, Hochman vowed to bring back the death penalty option for extreme cases.

Jess Farris, senior policy counsel at the ACLU of Southern California, said the punishment is part of “failed and cruel policy relics LA has already left behind”.

“The issues that have driven LA voters to repeatedly reject the death penalty still ring true: the incompetent attorneys often defending death penalty cases in LA county, its legacy of discriminatory and arbitrary use, its proven failure to deter capital crimes, its tragic fallibility, and its endorsement of brutality and murder as solutions to complex problems,” Farris said.

California currently has 592 condemned prisoners, with 206 of them from Los Angeles county. A majority have been transferred from the former death row at San Quentin state prison to be housed with the general population at other maximum security prisons.