Los Angeles County DA Brings Back Death Penalty for Some Murder Cases

District Attorney Nathan Hochman reversed his predecessor’s ban on seeking capital punishment.

An inmate at San Quentin State Prison, in Calif., on March 13, 2019. Eric Risberg/AP stock photo

Los Angeles County’s new district attorney reinstated the death penalty for special murder cases on March 24, reversing a controversial ban implemented by former progressive District Attorney George Gascón.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman called Gascón’s decision forbidding prosecutors to seek the death penalty for murder “extreme.”