Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has dropped a request for the death penalty for a woman and her boyfriend who are accused of murdering and torturing her 10-year-old son — and the prosecutor in charge of the case is furious.
Gascón received millions of dollars in support from left-wing billionaire George Soros during his race last years against incumbent D.A. Jackie Lacey, the first black woman to hold the post. Upon being sworn in last December, Gascón vowed immediate reforms to the criminal justice system, including an end to cash bail and to the death penalty in new cases.
Gascón is putting those radical changes into effect — and provoking outrage:
CBS Los Angeles reported Thursday:
Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami opposed the latest decision in the case of Heather Maxine Barron and Kareem Ernesto Leiva.
“This is not based upon new evidence,” Hatami said in a statement. “This is not based upon new mitigation or new law. I stand by the special-circumstances committee decision that I announced to the court on the record two years ago.”
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Barron, 31, and Leiva, 35, now face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged of murder and torture, along with a special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture in the June 2018 death of Anthony Avalos.
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Prosecutors allege Barron and Leiva severely tortured Anthony during the last five or six days of his life. The alleged abuse included whipping him with a belt and a looped cord, pouring hot sauce on his face and mouth and holding him by his feet and dropping him on his head repeatedly, according to court filings.
Lacey originally sought the death penalty in 2019. Gascón now faces a recall effort by irate Los Angeles County residents.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, We Told You So!: The First 100 Days of Joe Biden’s Radical Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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