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Los Angeles County DA Jackie Lacey has won death sentences against a total of 22 people, all of them of color, and eight of them represented by lawyers with serious misconduct charges against them, since she took office in 2012. gu.com/p/by5m3/stw
Defense lawyers in five of the 22 cases were suspended or disbarred, Defense counsel for two other defendants was put on probation, and the attorney for another is currently facing multiple bar charges.
In one case an attorney declined to make an opening statement – offering no defense at all – and then repeatedly fell asleep during the trial.
Failures of defense counsel are key contributors to wrongful convictions, but these cases take years to go through the system. People are exonerated decades after being convicted, after spending 20 or 30 years in prison, or being executed.
Despite all of this. and campaigning as a reformer, Lacey continues to seek the death penalty, even after Governor Newsom's announcement of a moratorium.
