LA County DA: Death penalty will be sought only in exceedingly rare cases

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced today his office will seek the death penalty only in exceedingly rare cases, rescinding a directive by his predecessor that barred prosecutors from seeking capital punishment against defendants charged with special circumstance murders.  

"I remain unwaveringly committed to the comprehensive and thorough evaluation of every special circumstance murder case prosecuted in Los Angeles County, in consultation with the murder victim's survivors and with full input on the mitigating and aggravating factors of each case, to ensure that the punishment sought by the office is just, fair, fitting and appropriate," the district attorney said in a statement.  

According to the District Attorney's Office statement, the office will only consider pursuing a potential death sentence after an extensive and comprehensive review and only in exceedingly rare cases, recognizing that the death penalty "should be restricted to the most egregious sets of
circumstances."  

Defense attorneys will be offered ``enhanced opportunities'' to share information about their clients with the office's Special Circumstances Committee and the district attorney when the death penalty is under
consideration, and the views of victims' survivors will be sought and considered before any final determinations are made, according to the District Attorney's Office.

The move immediately rescinds a directive from now-former District Attorney George Gascón, who announced shortly after being sworn into office in December 2020 that the District Attorney's Office would no longer pursue the death penalty under his watch. He said then that he ``does not believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment in any case.''  

Two men were subsequently sentenced to death in high-profile Los Angeles County murder cases that had been tried under prior District Attorney Jackie Lacey's administration, but were still awaiting sentencing when Lacey lost her re-election bid to Gascón.

In July 2021, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler went ahead with a jury's recommendation for a death sentence for Michael Gargiulo, who was convicted of killing and mutilating two Southland women. The judge said he had ``read and considered'' a statement from Gascón, which was not read in open court.

Just over two weeks before Gargiulo's sentencing, Superior Court Judge Raul A. Sahagun refused to allow a statement to be read in court on behalf of Gascón before a parolee, Jade Douglas Harris, was sentenced to death for murdering three people and trying to kill two others in Downey while posing as a prospective buyer of a Chevrolet Camaro.  

In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on the death penalty in California, ordering the immediate closure of the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.  

"The intentional killing of another person is wrong and as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual,'' Newsom said in a statement at the time. ``Our death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure. It has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can't afford expensive legal representation. It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Most of all, the death penalty is absolute. It's irreversible and irreparable in the event of human error.''