Today, San Franciscans will vote on whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Almost three years into his tenure — during which time he’s under-prosecuted, under-charged and under-sentenced countless offenders — more than 80,000 petitioners hope to oust him.
But Boudin’s recall is not just a referendum on how well one prosecutor is doing his job. It’s a measure of what the famously liberal Golden City thinks a prosecutor’s job is.
In the Manhattan district attorney’s office where I worked for three decades, we were taught that justice dictates a simple formula: evidence + law = charge. In other words, we were to carry out the law as the people’s representatives had written it, not to decide for ourselves whether the law should be more lenient.
Of course, every case is unique. A good prosecutor must make assessments based on the strength of the evidence, the presence of viable defenses, staffing considerations, etc. Often after careful consideration, charges lead to cooperation agreements, plea bargains and programs designed to rehabilitate.
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