(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) Facing a second recall drive and a revolt from his own deputies, George Soros-backed Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has hired the country’s most expensive attorney on the taxpayer’s dime to push his soft-on-crime policies all the way to the California Supreme Court, Fox 11 reported.
Gascón, who has been notoriously soft on brazen criminals, is trying to prevent L.A. prosecutors from enforcing the voter-approved three-strikes law, which “significantly increases the prison sentences of persons convicted of felonies who have been previously convicted of a violent or serious felony.”
CA’s 1994 3 Strikes Law has been a disaster.
In 1980 CA had a prison pop of ~23,000.
In 1990, that number grew to ~94,000.
And In 1999, 5 years after passage of 3 Strikes, CA‘s prison population ballooned to 160,000 souls.
3 strikes ends in my office beginning today.
— George Gascón (@GeorgeGascon) December 7, 2020
On July 14, Gascón issued a statement castigating the California Court of Appeals for upholding the “draconian” three strikes law, in a suit originally brought by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys of Los Angeles.
“The Three Strikes law imposes draconian penalties on defendants who were previously convicted of certain prior felonies,” the DA’s office wrote. “District Attorney Gascón is now taking the fight for fairness and rationality in prosecution to the California Supreme Court.”
According to Fox 11, Gascón has retained Democratic super-attorney Neal K. Katyal, a former acting solicitor general of the U.S., who has reportedly charged as much as $2,465 an hour for his legal services.
“That’s high, but appellate experts like him are in high demand,” Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles-based trial attorney told Fox 11. “When you hire the former acting solicitor general to handle an appeal, it’s a big deal.”
Rahmani, however, went on to criticize Gascón for wasting his prosecutors’ time and citizens’ money.
“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,” Rahmani continued.
