George Gascón’s “Special Directives” as they relate to the pleading and proving of sentencing enhancements and allegations are illegal and unenforceable.

 By Robert Phillips, Deputy District Attorney (Ret). 

LA DA George Gascón and the Demise of his “Special Directives:”

George Gascón’s “Special Directives” as they relate to the pleading and proving of sentencing enhancements and allegations are illegal and unenforceable. 

When first elected to be Los Angeles County’s District Attorney in November, 2020, George Gascón immediately announced a number of “Special Directives.”  In a nutshell, these Special Directives (as relevant here) prohibited Los Angeles’ deputy district attorneys in most new cases from alleging in a charging document (i.e., complaint, information, or indictment) any prior serious or violent felony convictions (commonly referred to as “strikes”) under the three strikes law, or other “sentence enhancements” (e.g., firearm usage, GBI infliction, etc.).  The Directives also required deputy district attorneys in pending cases to move a trial court to dismiss or seek leave to remove from the charging document allegations of strikes and sentence enhancements. In potential capital cases, special circumstance allegations that could lead to a sentence of life ....