Video: George Gascon, Steve Cooley Back Nov. Ballot Initiative Softening 3-Strikes Law

A tale of two DA’s: George Gascon, Steve Cooley.

One is a San Francisco Democrat, the other an LA Republican. Cooley lost the 2010 California Attorney General race to Kamala Harris, whom Gascon then replaced as San Francisco’s District Attorney.

Now, here are the two criminal justice officials together, interviewed by Scott Shafer, discussing their positions on Proposition 34, which would end the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole, and on Proposition 36, which would reform California’s severe three-strikes law, requiring the third strike to be a violent offense in order for the imposition of a life sentence.

You may be surprised to find that Cooley, who ran for AG on a strong law-and-order platform, supports the three-strikes reform. Take a look…

Video: Gascon, Cooley support making Calif. 3-strikes law less stringent

Video: Gascon, Cooley on ending death penalty in California

You can hear more from Gascon and Cooley on KQED Public Television’s upcoming “Prison Break: California Rethinks Criminal Justice,” a co-production of KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting. The show will explore California’s unprecedented overhaul of its criminal justice system, known as realignment, by following a group of inmates released from state prison into the supervision of probation officers in San Francisco and Fresno counties. The ex-prisoners’ experiences are part of a systemic change that shifted thousands of low-level offenders to local and county jails and probation departments.

The show will air this Friday at 7:30 p.m.

You can learn more about realignment at our special Prison Break site.