Changing the Justice System

I am an attorney with the Alternate Public Defender’s Office, a criminal defense firm recently created by Los Angeles County to represent indigent criminal defendants at a greater saving to taxpayers, writing in response to Bill Boyarsky’s column, “D.A. Says System Needs a Shake-Up” (May 5). Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti is quoted as advocating a “fundamental shake-up” of the criminal justice system because of the spectacle created by the O.J. Simpson trial. He advocates lowering the level of proof needed for conviction of a criminal offense, non-unanimous jury verdicts and abandoning the use of juries in some crimes, including felony drug possession.

Ironically, my young law firm has already seen defendants charged with simple possession of drugs (a minor felony), who have two strikes, go to state prison for life, and many more are awaiting jury trials. By creating the “three-strikes law,” the traditional rules of separation of power (fundamental to our democracy) have been radically changed, taking the power to strike priors from the judiciary, and instead leaving it in the hands of Garcetti and other district attorneys. The hope was that Garcetti, given this monumental power, would exercise it rationally, on a case-by-case basis.

Instead, Garcetti has spurned this tremendous responsibility, and instead capitulated to political concerns. More than 70% of the three-strikes filings are for minor felonies like possession of small quantities of drugs or stealing food. Once filed, Garcetti’s deputies are required to toe the line. No dispositions. The result has been a backlog of criminal trial matters. The long-term consequence will be prison geriatric wards, at a cost to taxpayers of alarming proportions.

So what does Garcetti do? He makes a political speech, exhorting denying a defendant charged with simple possession, but possibly facing life imprisonment, the fundamental right to a jury trial. And he uses the O.J. Simpson trial, an anomaly uncharacteristic of the average felony case, to try to make his point.

RICHARD HERZOG

Culver City