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Victims rights advocates launch recall effort against newly elected L.A. Dist. Atty. George Gascón - Los Angeles Times
Feb 28, 2021 1 min, 38 secs
Victims rights advocates on Saturday officially kicked off their recall campaign against newly elected Los Angeles County Dist.

George Gascón, who has vowed sweeping criminal justice reforms to the nation’s largest prosecutor’s office.

The recall campaign group held a “victims vigil” outside the Hall of Justice downtown and planned to gather the minimum of 20 signatures required to file a notice of intent to formally begin the recall process next month.

The day he took office, Gascón announced an array of sweeping changes that included ending the use of sentencing enhancements, severely restricting when prosecutors can seek to hold defendants in lieu of bail, ending use of the death penalty in L.A.

Representatives for the Recall George Gascón campaign include victims’ rights advocates, former law enforcement officials and current and former prosecutors, including former L.A.

“The moment he was sworn in as district attorney, George Gascón instituted a series of directives to the prosecutors in his command that have nothing to do with a progressive approach to prosecution and have everything to do with a radical agenda that ignores victims, disregards the law and endangers the lives and livelihoods of all Angelenos,” according to the recall campaign.

Tania Owen said the prosecutor handling her husband’s murder case called her the day Gascón was sworn in and said the office would no longer be seeking the death penalty, life without parole or any sentencing enhancements.

“Quite honestly it was a gut punch,” said Tania Owen, who is listed as an honorary chairwoman for the recall campaign.

An elected county official must be in office for 90 days before a recall petition can be filed, according to the L.A.

After the wording of the recall petition has been approved, proponents will have 160 days to collect the necessary signatures, which is equal 10% of the county’s more than 5.8 million registered voters or upwards of 580,000 signatures, according to the county clerk’s office.

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