A report published today by the ACLU, “A Closer Look at Los Angeles County’s Troubling Death-Penalty Track Record,” finds that under LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey, the DA’s office “continues to waste the jurisdiction’s precious time and resources on death penalty prosecutions.” And, the report notes, these capital sentences reveal “stunning racial disparities that eviscerate any claim Lacey may make about representing constituents or delivering what the people of L.A. County want.”
The report is thorough, well researched, and alarming. “All of the 22 people who received death sentences while DA Lacey has been in office are people of color,” it found. What’s more, “Between 2000 and 2015, Latinx, Black, and Asian homicide victims collectively comprised 87% of the victims of homicide in Los Angeles County, while white homicide victims constituted only 12%. Nonetheless, more than a third (36%) of the 22 defendants sentenced to death during DA Lacey’s term involved at least one white victim.”
You’ll want to read this report. It’s thorough, well researched, and alarming. It’s statistics like those uncovered by the ACLU in this report that enforce the importance of the moratorium. We know the death penalty is racist and arbitrarily applied. Reports like this provide the facts behind our beliefs.
Lacey is the first woman, and first African-American, to serve as LA district attorney. She was first elected in December, 2012.
You can read the full report here.
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