Los Angeles Prosecutor to Grant Amnesty for 50,000 Old Marijuana Convictions

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has announced plans to implement a local amnesty program for approximately 50,000 old convictions related to the possession, use, and small-scale distribution of marijuana. According to sources within the District Attorney’s Office, officials are actively collaborating with the nonprofit organization Code for America to develop a special program. This initiative will use specific algorithms to dramatically speed up the review of old court records, allowing the government to more quickly grant amnesty to Los Angeles residents who have been affected by years of strict criminalization policies.

With this move, Los Angeles will become the second county in California, after San Francisco, to support a local amnesty program for old marijuana-related convictions. “I hope that through this project, we will soon be able to grant amnesty to thousands of our fellow citizens who are currently incarcerated or suffering career and social setbacks due to old convictions on their records,” said District Attorney Jackie Lacey regarding the upcoming amnesty.

Other California Counties Join the Effort

Shortly after Los Angeles made its announcement, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office also revealed plans for a local amnesty program, which is expected to benefit at least 4,000 people.

It’s important to note that promises of widespread amnesty for minor marijuana offenses were a key part of California’s full legalization project, which was approved by voters in a public referendum in November 2016. However, the promised program has faced significant delays, as authorities have struggled to accurately estimate the number of residents eligible for amnesty. It is believed that at least 200,000 Californians—both those who have served and those still serving sentences for minor offenses—fall within the scope of the program.

Due to challenges in automating the amnesty process, eligible individuals have so far had to appeal their old convictions on a case-by-case basis, often requiring legal assistance and paperwork, which has further slowed the program’s implementation.

San Francisco Leads the Way with Automation

Last month, San Francisco became the first county in California to launch its own local amnesty program. District Attorney George Gascón announced the start of the official pardon process for 9,300 residents convicted of minor marijuana offenses between 1975 and 2016. Gascón explained that the local program was created in response to the slow progress of the regional initiative, which, despite a team of 23 lawyers, had identified only 23 eligible individuals in a year.

After manually reviewing over 1,000 cases, Gascón’s office became the first in California to partner with Code for America, which promised to develop an automated algorithm to speed up and simplify the search for eligible candidates for pardons. The programmers, who are also San Francisco natives, have already launched a pilot version of their algorithm, called Clear My Record, covering the city’s courts and nearby counties.

“Once the program is refined and adapted to search for similar cases statewide, we’ll be able to clearly show citizens that the government is following through on the marijuana legalization law by automatically granting the long-promised amnesty to thousands, or even millions, of our fellow citizens. This will allow many of them, for the first time in years, to receive social support from the state and begin building full-fledged careers,” said Jennifer Pahlka, head of Code for America. “Clear My Record has the potential to fundamentally transform not only the amnesty process in California, but also to speed up the justice system nationwide,” she added.

Other Cities Consider Similar Amnesty Programs

In addition to California cities, prosecutors’ offices in Seattle, Baltimore, and Chicago, as well as several local prosecutors in Michigan, are considering similar amnesty programs for their residents. Many plan to begin these efforts in the new year, following the formal enactment of legalization laws passed last November.