LOS ANGELES—A California appellate court ruled this week that Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón can’t reject charging three-strike allegations and sentencing enhancements.
A three-judge panel of the California Second District Court of Appeal upheld June 2 in a 71-page injunction that “voters and the Legislature created a duty, enforceable in mandamus, that requires prosecutors to plead prior serious or violent felony convictions to ensure the alternative sentencing scheme created by the three strikes law applies to repeat offenders.”
Gascón argued that he has the authority to order prosecutors not to pursue prior-strike or sentencing enhancements.
But the appellate court said he “overstates his authority” and is “an elected official who must comply with the law, not a sovereign with absolute, unreviewable discretion.”…