Nathan Hochman begins his term as Los Angeles County’s district attorney Tuesday, taking office after promising to restore balance to a criminal justice system he says was too lenient on violent and repeat offenders for the last four years. Hochman has vowed to wipe away many of the policies enacted by his predecessor George Gascón, and perhaps befitting his stated intentions he will be sworn in by “The Terminator” himself, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Much like Schwarzenegger, who has expressed concern about politics that hurt public safety and said he doesn’t "like either party right now," Hochman ran as an independent and centrist. A former Republican, Hochman easily parried Gascón’s attempts to label him as a right-wing extremist and defeated the incumbent by a nearly 20-point margin, attracting voters in deep-blue L.A. County with a campaign that offered a “hard middle” approach to fighting crime, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Although Hochman has said he will not abandon all of Gascón’s criminal justice reform focus in service of public safety, his early policy positions seem more focused on punitive measures. Hochman has pledged to undo Gascón’s ban on seeking the death penalty, though he said pursuit of death sentences will take place only in “rare” cases, including school shootings or the “cold-blooded assassination of a police officer.” A moratorium issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 prevents executions from taking place. Hochman plans to remove a Gascón edict that barred prosecutors from filing a number of low-level misdemeanor charges, including simple drug possession and trespassing, though he has said first-time offenders could still be offered diversion programs for mental health or addiction issues. Going forward, Hochman said, prosecutors will also have wider latitude to seek sentencing enhancements, which can add several years to the prison terms of defendants convicted of gun or gang crimes. Hochman will announce the formation of task forces to deal with “homelessness, fentanyl, human trafficking, organized retail crime and residential burglary,” which would involve partnerships with local law enforcement and county and city agencies that aid the unhoused.
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