Every candidate for District Attorney both incumbents and challengers–received a questionnaire with 49 Yes/No questions. Here are their responses to date.

 

The organizations that have created this questionnaire are nonprofits that do not endorse or oppose any candidates for elected public office.

Will you prohibit the use of juvenile adjudications as strikes and allow resentencing?

Recognizing that children and youth are categorically less culpable than adults, have less impulse control and possess profound capacity for transformation, will you decline to seek life without the possibility of parole for any person under 26 at the time of offense? Please select “Yes” or “No” and provide an explanation.

Will you commit to keeping all children out of adult court by pledging not to prosecute any minors as adults?

When individuals bring legal challenges under the California Racial Justice Act of 2020, will you be proactive about providing access to relevant evidence, carefully consider the allegations raised, and take corrective action when the challenges have merit?

Will you decline to file charges where an arrest provides evidence that the officer engaged in racial profiling or other racial bias? Please answer “Yes” or “No” and provide an explanation.

Will you pledge to collect and post online quarterly statistical information disaggregated by race, age, zip code of residence (including if houseless), and gender on felony and misdemeanor charging decisions, convictions, declinations (to charge), and diversion program placements? Please select “Yes” or “No” and provide an explanation.

Will you commit to implement policies and practices to combat bias in decision-making within your Office, including in charging decisions, bail recommendations, diversion program placements, and plea bargains – as well as in internal Office practices (i.e. regularly bringing in experts to train staff and prosecutors on implicit and explicit bias, prioritizing inclusive hiring and promotion, and ensuring the office not only has racial and ethnic diversity, but also diversity in gender, ability, health)? Please select “Yes” or “No” and provide an explanation.

Will you reexamine previously-imposed death sentences within your county, particularly when there is substantial evidence that the individual suffers from an intellectual disability or serious mental illness, was under the age of 25 at the time of the offense, or experienced extensive childhood trauma?

Will you publicly support efforts to abolish the death penalty? Please select “Yes” or “No” and provide an explanation.

Will you pledge to never seek the death penalty, including in any cases sent back to your office after a court has reversed a death sentence in light of Governor Newsom’s moratorium on executions?

In 2020, the California Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) granted release to only 16 percent of people who were eligible for parole. Those serving life sentences who were granted parole have a dramatically lower recidivism rate than those who are not reviewed by the parole board prior to release. Over the last twenty years, less than 1 percent of paroled lifers have been arrested or convicted of new felonies. Will you commit to keeping the District Attorney’s office out of the parole hearing process except to support the release of an individual? Please explain.

Will you require prosecutors to justify upward departures to their supervisors, and require that a senior prosecutor approve all maximum sentences sought?

Will you establish an office-wide presumption that the least severe applicable charges apply, and that the lowest sentencing outcome is the correct recommendation? What will your policy be on selecting what charges to file and what will your policy be on sentencing recommendations?

Will you adopt a policy eliminating or limiting the application of Three Strikes sentencing in your office, and require line prosecutors to obtain written approval from a supervising prosecutor before seeking enhanced sentences under the Three Strikes Law?