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2 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
New: in her first week in office, the new DA of Athens, GA, releases a new memo of big reforms.

Among them: she’ll never seek the death penalty. drive.google.com/file/d/1SHwcNe…
You know of this new DA, Deborah Gonzalez, if you’ve been following me: she won a runoff in a race that almost didn’t happen after Brian Kemp tried to cancel it.

You can catch up here if you missed it:
I reported last month Gonlazez was among a wave of new DAs who ran on never seeking the death penalty. (Hence why I focused on that in first tweet: memo says a lot else.) theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

George Gascon in LA has also confirmed this policy since taking office in December.
If you are in Georgia, this has been a huge day!

Deborah Gonzalez unveiled a wave of reforms in Athens.

And Gwinnett County has quit ICE’s 287(g) program.

https://t.co/WUpha0KQiG

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More from @Taniel

Taniel Profile picture
31 Dec 20
2020 (even 2020) brought transformative local elections & big progressive wins.

Here's a year-end thread of some of the most 🔥 results that have stayed with me! #overlookedelectionstakes
Before I start, you can relive hundreds of 2020 local races (and why they mattered) at my what's on the ballot:

hundreds of primaries: whatsontheballot.com/2020-primaries/

hundreds of general elections: whatsontheballot.com/2020-general-e…

and for criminal justice-related races: theappeal.org/political-repo…
1️⃣ Voters in Missouri & Oklahoma voted in summer referendums to expand Medicaid: This'll grant public insurance to ≈500K people, a huge deal.

(This leaves a dozen states that have not expanded Medicaid, so keep your eyes on more battles going forward.)
Read 34 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
26 Dec 20
The big "gasp"-inducing allegation in this story is that... Gascon, LA's new DA, is communicating & "working with defense attorneys."

That some think of this as a bombshell really says a lot about how messed-up the metrics & conventions of the current criminal legal system.
This is the second story in as many weeks where a deputy prosecutor has been apopletic over collaboration between the prosecutor's office & a defender's office. See below.

(And here's the link to the new story: foxla.com/news/george-ga…)

Gascon RAN ON of upending status-quo of prosecution. That was his platform, his promise. Association of deputy DAs endorsed his opponent (incumbent).

That headline above is equivalent to interviewing a Trump supporter & headlining it "Biden loses confidence of his own troops."
Read 4 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
23 Dec 20
Local judges are key punitive cogs in mass incarceration. But in 2020 they were rumblings of change: activism, reform candidates, & then—big results!

But this remains neglected. We at @TheAppeal were intent on chronicling more of this "flip the bench" movement. A thread on 2020:
1️⃣ There was 🔥 in New Orleans: A group of 7 current & former public defenders ran for judge, with the stated goal of using the vast discretion of judicial offices to fight mass incarceration.

Two won (theappeal.org/politicalrepor…).

Full context: theappeal.org/politicalrepor….
2️⃣ New Orleans's Nov. elections came a few months after something of a "dress rehearsal": New Orleans husing activists used a summer judicial election to put heat on power of local judges to do something about the eviction crisis, & their powers.

theappeal.org/politicalrepor….
Read 8 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
13 Dec 20
A staff prosecutor in Los Angeles says prosecutors have come together to reject implementation of policies that the newly-elected DA ran on for a year, and then reiterated on his first day in office.

Much like DAs used to resist & sue reform iniatives & laws.
Eye-opening to what makes it toweringly difficult task to fight mass incarceration: many elections show voters reject tough-on-crime politics, over and over — but staff prosecutors (& police unions) retain a lot of power to stymie efforts, ignore results, threaten over new laws.
See also: how badly prosecutors & police unions misfired in NY this year; results of many DA & sheriff races in recent years; and the results of CA’s Prop 20, a rollback of sentencing reforms CA voters roundly rejected even as it had fearmongering support from many prosecutors.
Read 4 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
10 Dec 20
A party has chosen as one of its baseline membership belief — the sort of belief that makes it cohere it as party — the idea that it should never be allowed to lose an election.

It'd be death-knell for democracy if sustained, but institutional biases means there's no reckoning.
This is also a party that's now been going to bat for poll closures, sinking the VRA, ruining the census, prison gerrymandering, expanding large-scale felony disenfranchisement & poll tax, restricting mail-in voting & voter registration, new rules against initiatives.
This is a party that's repeatedly been using *the bare fact that black people have voted* as evidence something is amiss.

This is party that's using *bare fact that its officials say there's fraud* as the only needed evidence there's a trust issue to remedy via restrictions.
Read 4 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
8 Dec 20
here are just some things announced today in Los Angeles because of one DA race, one local race I harped on all year!

1) no more death penalty
2) prosecutors won't seek cash bail
3) & won't seek any sentencing enhancements
4) thousands of cases reviewed for excessive sentencing
This is a county of 10 million residents, where prosecutors have aggressively thrown ppl into terrible jails & prisons with long sentences (incl. death penalty).

Big stuff -- that'll be important to keep an eye on to see how the county's huge legal machinery implements them.
And while LA is nation's biggest county, it's also just the tip of the iceberg.

Ann Arbor's new DA also said he won't seek cash bail.

Austin's new DA said he won't criminally charge drug cases.

New Orleans's new DA opposes charging kids as adults.

(All newly elected.)
Read 4 tweets

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