Progressive prosecutors find themselves under fire across U.S.

What two characteristics do Andrew Warren, Larry Krasner, Monique Worrell, George Gascón, Joe Gonzales, Pamela Price, and Chesa Boudin have in common? They all belong to a new force of progressivism in criminal prosecution and they all have been in the crosshairs of conservative politicians eager to return their jurisdictions back to a lock-’em-up philosophy.

Voters in San Francisco recalled Boudin in June 2022, while District Attorney Gascón has survived two recall attempts in Los Angeles, in campaigns built on fear-based arguments about crime and disorder, according to an article by Jamiles Lartey of The Marshall Project, a social justice organization based in New York City.

In Alameda County, District Attorney Pamela Price has come under fire after just seven months in office. This makes her the third prosecutor in a major California city that has faced recall, allegedly due to some of her charging decisions in cases that involved violence along with an apparent rise in some violent crime rates in her jurisdiction. 

However, Price said that recall campaigners “refuse to accept the results of a legitimate, democratic election to remove the status quo,” according to the article.

Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, an advocacy group, said, “There’s obviously a feeling by a few of the [Republican] presidential candidates that they can gain some traction by making this into a political wedge issue and going after the so-called ‘woke’ prosecutors.”

Beyond the recalls, conservative leaders have resorted to impeachments, law changes, and suspensions to oust progressive prosecutors, wrote Lartey in the article.

One of the most outspoken critics, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, terminated prosecutor Andrew Warren in January 2023 for allegedly failing to enforce state law. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle weighed in saying, “[Warren] was diligently and competently performing the job he was elected to perform, very much in the way he told voters he would perform it.”

The article noted that Warren still lost his job as a Florida court later dismissed Warren’s challenge on a technicality.

DeSantis, a presidential hopeful, also suspended Monique Worrell, the elected prosecutor in the Orlando area, claiming that she failed to enforce state laws. Worrell has vowed to fight the governor’s sanctions but says even a court’s agreement might not make her reinstatement a reality, according to the article.

In Texas, San Antonio prosecutor Joe Gonzales said his office would change policy to comply with a state law that allows a judge to remove from office prosecutors who choose not pursue specific types of crime. The Texas legislature pushed for the new law in response to prosecutors who would not pursue abortion-related charges.

Earlier this year, conservative Pennsylvania lawmakers tried to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. A panel of state court judges concluded that the legislature “simply appears not to approve of the way [Krasner] has chosen to run his office,” noted the article.

Even when prosecutors survive attempts to oust them, hurdles to progress still remain. Los Angeles County DA Gascón campaigned on curbing excessively long and harsh sentences and said in 2020 that his unit could reduce up to 30,000 sentences in the California prison system. State data, though, indicates that Gascón has accomplished fewer than 100 sentence revisions, partly because his staff is worried that people released early might recidivate and bring scrutiny on the office, according to the article.

Most states cannot consider resentencing unless a prosecutor can prove an error in the original term, the story reported. Resentencing units, however, have powers to consider more kinds of cases. More states are granting prosecutors broader powers to initiate resentencing, including Minnesota this summer, the article pointed out.

An actual or apparent rise in crime rates serves as the usual pretext to attempt to remove progressive prosecutors, the article wrote. Alameda DA Price’s supporters counter that the factors driving fluctuations in crime are complex and beyond the control of any one single public official.