Yesterday, July 5, was the last day for people in LA County to sign the petition which would get a recall of DA George Gascon on the ballot this fall. Today, the group that organized the petition drive said they had more than the necessary number of signatures and will be delivering them by truck to LA County.

After announcing their initial plans to recall the D.A. back in late January, organizers are prepared to deliver a literal truckload’s worth of signatures to election officials at the county’s Registrar Office at around 2 p.m.

With the goal of receiving more than 700,000 petition signatures, in order to ensure that there were more than enough valid names on the list, the organizers hope that this latest effort will be enough to put Gascón’s fate in the hands of L.A. County voters come November.

However, they did not report how many signatures they had collected over the last six months, though they did say they have surpassed the required total.

They need 566,000 signatures to get this on the ballot but inevitably some of those signatures will be found to be invalid. That’s why the goal was so much higher at 700k. The fact that they haven’t claimed they reached the goal of 700,000 suggests they didn’t get that far. Did they pass 600,000 at least? It’s a bit worrisome they didn’t say as much. All they’ve said so far is that they have more than 566,000.

Today we will submit more than 566,857 signed petitions to the LA County Registrar's office to recall George Gascon.
LA, you have made your voices heard. Together, we're going to force George Gascon to face the voters.#RecallDAGeorgeGasconhttps://t.co/eZrIk5MUV0

— RecallDAGeorgeGascon (@DAGasconRecall) July 6, 2022

I’ve chronicled the many, many cases that have put Gascon’s policies front and center, from the child abuser (and suspected murderer) who got a sweet deal because he was two weeks from his 18th birthday to the convicted murderer who wanted Gascon’s name tattooed on his face. More recently Gascon was defending a car thief who ran down a mother and her infant and tried to drive away receiving a 5-month sentence. Gascon’s policies were also implicated in the deaths of two El Monte police officers. Gascon’s statement on that case was one for the ages.

Even since I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago Gascon’s policies are being blamed for another tragic case.

A man arrested in the slaying of a transient in Pacoima was released from prison last year after serving just eight years of a life sentence for a double murder because District Attorney George Gascón refused to transfer his case from juvenile to adult court, the Southern California News Group has learned.

Victor Bibiano, 30, was taken into custody last month for the April 16 killing of 42-year-old Mario Rodriguez, who was found shot at a transient encampment at Dronefield Avenue and Terra Bella Street in the foothill area of Pacoima.

Bibiano was 17 when he and two co-defendants were convicted in adult court in 2012 in the killing of two rival Pacoima gang members and the wounding of a third in 2009. Bibiano was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for a special-circumstance double murder, attempted murder, and shooting a firearm at an inhabited dwelling, as well as gun and gang enhancements, according to court records…

“I know that people are angry, and I am angry, too,” he said. “But we cannot use single tragedies to make policy. One person’s failure cannot lead us to doubt the potential of everyone else. In other Los Angeles cases where juveniles previously sentenced to life have been released, including Mr. Bibiano’s original co-defendant, the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

Eight years for a double murder. And if he got out early and killed again, well we just have to ignore that as a single tragedy. Notice that there’s actually no way to argue with this stupid line of thinking. If Gascon decided to release everyone from jail tomorrow he could similarly argue that any crimes that followed were just “single tragedies” and claim his own actions weren’t relevant to making them possible. In this case, he’s literally arguing that if two convicted murderers are released and only one kills again that should be deemed a success.

There have been a lot of these single tragedies under Gascon’s watch. Hopefully his time in office will be coming to an end soon.

Update: A helpful reader noticed this tweet which went up shortly after the story above. Anyway, the good news is the recall group claims to have submitted more than 700,000 signatures. That should be enough to survive any challenge.

New, Update: The campaign to recall Los Angeles DA @GeorgeGascon says it is submitting 717,000 petition signatures today to qualify the recall for the ballot. It needs 566,857 of those to be valid, or 79% of what they're turning in. That's a 21% cushion, which should be enough. pic.twitter.com/OWiJLuB9oh

— Doug Sovern (@SovernNation) July 6, 2022