Gascon v. the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County
Intermediate court held that three strikes law’s requirement that prosecutors plead and prove prior convictions that qualify defendants for longer sentences partially violates state constitution’s separation of powers. The court ruled that compelling prosecutors to plead prior strikes does not materially infringe their charging discretion, but requiring them to exercise discretion in a particular way to prove alleged strikes or when seeking to dismiss alleged strikes violates separation of powers. The California Supreme Court dismissed an appeal as moot and ordered the intermediate court decision not citable and nonprecedential after Los Angeles’s new district attorney rescinded the policy challenged in the suit.
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