LA to end cash bail and death penalty

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Los Angeles will end cash bail for many minor offences and stop seeking the death penalty, its new district attorney announced on his first day in the job.

George Gascon was sworn into the country’s largest prosecutor’s office and immediately announced a string of sweeping reforms.

Mr Gascon, a former San Francisco district attorney and assistant LAPD chief, will also end the practice of charging juveniles as adults and review sentences in thousands of cases.

After taking office Mr Gascon, who beat eight-year incumbent Jackie Lacey, said the city was “a poster child for the failed tough-on-crime approach.”

“The status quo hasn’t made us safer,” he said during a live-streamed ceremony.

"I recognise that these are big changes, but they are changes that will enable us to actually affect the truly vulnerable," added Mr Gascon.

Mr Gascon will also reopen at least four investigations into controversial police shootings, which were declined prosecutions by Ms Lacey.

His prosecutors will no longer ask courts for cash bail for misdemeanor crimes or in felony cases that are not serious or violent.

Defendants waiting for trial in prison “because they can’t afford to purchase their freedom” will now be able to request new court hearings to be released.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League union, which is made up of rank and file officers and strongly supported Ms Lacey, attacked Mr Gascon’s new policies.

“As homicides, shooting victims and shots fired into occupied homes soar in Los Angeles, it’s disturbing that Gascon’s first act in office is to explore every avenue possible to release from jail those responsible for this bloodshed,” said the union in a statement.

“These victims and law-abiding residents lost a voice today while criminals and gang members gained an ally in the prosecutor’s office.”