Riverside CountyCandidate for District Attorney

Lara has dedicated her near 16-year legal career to fighting for fairness. She has proven time and time again that she will uphold and defend the Constitution, serving all citizens of Riverside County. She will hold law enforcement accountable, and reject cases in which a suspect’s rights are violated. She will bring reform to the cash bail system, which effectively incarcerates people because they are poor. Lara will refocus resources on punishing violent offenders, and keeping communities safe by seeking alternatives and rehabilitation for non-violent offenders. This will end Riverside’s unparalleled contribution to the mass incarceration problem plaguing the US. Lara will refocus resources on punishing violent offenders, and keeping communities safe by seeking alternatives and rehabilitation for non-violent offenders. This will end Riverside’s unparalleled contribution to the mass incarceration problem plaguing the US and it will save tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Lara is Non-Party Affiliated and the Office of District Attorney's is a non-partisan position. Lady Justice is blind and her scales should never be influenced by a political philosophy or any other personal perspective. However, Riverside County is the poster child for what is wrong with the criminal justice system and is, therefore, ground zero for the battle for criminal justice reform. Riverside County imposed more death sentences than any other county in the United States in 2015, accounting for more than half of the state's new death sentences and 16% of new death sentences imposed nationwide. Riverside’s 29 death sentences from 2010-2015 made it the nation's second most prolific death-sentencing county during that period, behind only the country's most populous death penalty county, Los Angeles. While California imposed more death sentences than any other state during that period, Riverside stood out even among California counties, imposing death sentences at a rate that was 9 times greater per homicide than the rest of the state. A 2015 piece by Professor Robert J. Smith of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill called Riverside County “the buckle of a new Death Belt.” And the death sentences imposed in Riverside County also exhibit significant racial disparities. In 2017 alone, Riverside County once again led the nation in death penalty cases when five people were sentenced to death - 4 Hispanics, and 1 African American woman. The system is infected with an institutional bias against people of color, the poor, the homeless and the addicted. Lara Gressley with bring strength and compassion to this broken system.