OP-ED | Nathan Hochman takes La backwards for the judiciary, death penalty,

Hochman reinserted the death penalty in a county that pulled away from it.

The district prosecutor of Los Angeles, Nathan Hochman, sat down as allegedly moderate and claimed to bring partisan enemies in order to concentrate on “security, not politics”, even since he had recently run as a republican for AG.

Recently a growing choir of critics – from the lawyers of civil rights to former prosecutors – his actions in office tell a different story: one of calculated regressions, racist prejudices and political opportunism that are disguised as law and order.

Hochman made headlines in just a few months, the pattern is worrying-and there are not only political progressive that trigger the alarm.

“In a moment when the nation expects the failure of the criminal legal system,” said a legal reformer before Davis Vanguard, “this step doubles on one of the most broken and unjust elements.”

At Hochman's abrupt decision, she referred to the law enforcement of capital punishment-a strong departure from his predecessor George Gascón of his reform-driven moratorium.

Gascón had said famous: “If I thought that the death penalty would prevent people from walking brutal murders, I would look for it. But we know that it won't be.”

In fact, California has not carried out any execution since 2006. The state dismantled its Chamber of Death in 2019. Governor Gavin Newsom has continued a moratorium for executions, with high costs, racist inequalities and the disruptive rate of illegal convictions being cited.

The voters of Los Angeles himself rejected the death penalty from a majority in 2012. Hochman's political shift is not a reaction to the needs of public security – it is an ideological provocation.

“Due to the revival of the death penalty, Hochman reversed a long -standing moratorium,” reported La Progressive in April. “In a press conference, he said:” There are some crimes that are so hideous that only the ultimate punishment will do. “However, the supporters of reforms called this” a cynical and regressive step “, which ignores decades of data on illegal beliefs, racist differences and deterrent.”

This regressive bent is not limited to the death penalty.

In April, Hochman's office submitted an unsolicited Amicus letter to the Supreme Court of California, in which it was not even pursued. The letter asked the court to allow the prosecutors to describe the accused as “animals” and “monsters” – rhetorical, which have long been associated with racist practitions of courses. In the letter, the language was described as “an essential instrument for prosecutors to convey gravity for violent crimes”.

But critics were not convinced.

“This is exactly the kind of language, the black and brown defendant and nonsense juries,” said a former public defender. “It is not justice – it is a dog that is a pipe.”

The California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who defeated Hochman in the 2022 race around the Attorney General, had previously stated that the animal language addressed to Animalistic Language “flammable, biased and violated the law”. Hochman's short flies in view of these instructions and ignores decades of research on implicit distortions in the courtroom.

But perhaps the most disturbing is Hochman's politicization of the victim services. The Los Angeles Times reported that relatives of Kitty and Jose Menendez, whose sons Erik and Lyle are trying to access victim services from Hochman's office after reigns. Your crime? Do not agree to the hard attitude of the possible sales of the brothers.

“In the Menendez hearing, the office of the DA refused to take part in the restorative judicial process or offer the surviving family support services,” reported the Times. “A proponent of victims of crime told Times:” This is a profound betrayal. The victim services should never be politicized or held back as punishment. “

A family member, Anamaria Baralt, said her mother had been taken to the hospital after Hochman's office showed graphic crime scene photos in court without warning. Hochman's answer? No excuse -but a social media video that doubles and criticizes itself as politically motivated.

It is worth pausing here. Sacrificial services should be about healing and not about politics. The idea that they would be dolved afterwards whether families agree with the condemnation philosophy of the DA is not only unethical – it is cruel.

And in his own office, Hochman's stubborn approach seems to create fear. According to the article La Mag, two deputy prosecutors have submitted complaints in which retaliation are available. One claims that she was released because she pushed guidelines back; The other claims that it was exposed to “autobahn therapy” – euphemism because it was assigned away as a punishment for internal dissent.

“This is about optics, not about justice,” a former deputy told La Progressive. “We have spent years to rebuild public trust by moving away from the death penalty. Hochman has brought back the worst of the old game book – and he does this with applause from the same groups that opposed any reform at all.”

To understand what is really going on here, we have to cut through the tough-on-crime theater. Hochmans Playbook is not about security – it's about fear. It is about reviving discredited tactics that appeal to a shrinking basis of voters for law and order and align themselves with a national wave of right -wing public prosecutors who want to turn the clock back for the reform of the judiciary.

But Hochman rules in Los Angeles County – one of the most diverse and advanced counties in the nation and one with a long memory of the misuse of the judicial system. His decisions to regain the death penalty to defend racist courtroom rhetoric are not in the direction that Californians were selected.

The death penalty is exorbitantly expensive and demonstrably ineffective. The use of dehumanism in court leads to systemic racism. The refusal of victim services for mourners families violated against any principle of trauma-informed care.

Hochman says he wants to take politics out of law enforcement. However, every most recent decision suggests the opposite: one that makes calculated political games at the expense of fairness, dignity and rights of the most endangered rights.

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Davis Vanguard death penalty Erik Menendez Gavin Newsom George Gascón Jose Menendez Kitty Menendez Los Angeles Da Lyle Menendez Nathan Hochman