“We felt, reviewing his record and his rehabilitation efforts in prison, and reviewing his petition, that the right thing to do was to ask the court to resentence him, and the court agreed with us,” San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan told NBC 7.
Riviera s sentence was reduced, with a San Diego judge in light of Riviera s age and health condition, and his low risk for re-offending ruling in favor of the request.
“I mean, residential burglaries are terrifying to the residents and we want to hold people accountable, but we feel in this case that, you know, serving 20, over 23 years in prison definitely was a price that was paid,” Stephan said. “It was accountability, but 100 years, like the judge agreed, was too harsh for the crime.”
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San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan’s decision to lift all 20 injunctions against street gangs in six cities around the county is long overdue. Allowing city or district attorneys to obtain lifetime lifetime! restrictions on the movement and activities of individuals who allegedly belong to gangs even if they’ve never been convicted of a crime is a staggering intrusion into people’s lives. It is amazing that such laws have persisted to this day despite sharp criticism of their vagueness by U.S. Supreme Court majorities in 1983 (involving a San Diego case) and in 1999 (a Chicago case).
The injunctions are court orders restricting the most active and dangerous gang members from congregating with other known gang members, fighting, carrying weapons and intimidation. However, no gang injunctions have been filed by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office in the past eight years. The oldest existing injunction dates back to 1997.
The order remains in effect for a lifetime unless that person applies for removal and meets certain criteria.
“In our county, civil gang injunctions were put in place 10 to 20 years ago and for the most part had become stale, and in many cases, continue to cause hardships for people who have moved on and are trying to get a job or connect with relatives,” Stephan said in a statement.
San Diego County dissolves gang injunctions against hundreds mymotherlode.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mymotherlode.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
San Diego County dissolves gang injunctions against hundreds sandiegouniontribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sandiegouniontribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.