A former public defender is entering the race to be Los Angeles County district attorney, bringing a contrasting perspective to a field otherwise filled by career prosecutors and law enforcement officials.
Rachel Rossi announced her candidacy to unseat Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey on Tuesday afternoon, becoming the latest in a wave of self-professed reform candidates to challenge for D.A. posts in major cities in recent years.
“The prosecutor really is the key toward change and reform and focusing our policies in a direction of safety and smart efforts rather than blanket incarceration of people on all levels of offenses in a way that wastes taxpayer dollars and doesn’t promote public safety,” Rossi said in an interview with The Times.
Rossi, 37, joins former San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon and L.A. County Deputy Dist. Attys. Richard Ceballos and Joseph Iniguez in the push to unseat Lacey. The deadline for candidates to file for the March 2020 primary is Dec. 6.
Read the full story at LATimes.com.
“The role of a prosecutor historically has been to seek justice, not to seek incarceration and convictions. I think we’ve got that wrong; we’ve interpreted that as winning cases, racking up convictions, racking up years in jail,” she said. https://t.co/3z0fhWQWda
— Rachel Rossi (@Rachel4DA) November 12, 2019
