Dozens of felons apply for reduced convictions in Merced County

Prosecutors in Merced County are reviewing dozens of petitions from felons seeking to reduce their convictions to misdemeanors in the wake of the recent passage of Proposition 47.

That’s creating a substantial caseload increase for an already staff-strapped Merced County District Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Larry Morse II and his chief deputies, Rob Carroll and Harold Nutt, said Merced prosecutors have received 78 petitions from felons seeking to convert their convictions since Proposition 47 passed in November.

Nearly 60 percent of California voters supported the new law, according to the California secretary of state’s office.

The measure reduced certain drug and theft-related crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and allowed some previously convicted offenders to apply for reduced sentences, according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Nutt said those petitions, which require prosecutors to reopen closed cases, represent about a 20 percent increase in workload without any corresponding increase in staff or funding. Merced prosecutors also filed more than 330 new felony cases during the same time, from Nov. 1, 2014, through last week.

Morse said staffing in his office is among the lowest in the state among counties of comparable size, such as Butte and Yolo counties.

Morse noted Butte County has about 40,000 fewer residents than Merced County, but has more prosecutors and significantly fewer homicides. Butte County in 2014 had 30 prosecutors and 13 homicides compared with Merced County, which had 23 prosecutors and 32 homicides.

“The bottom line, we were already seeing substantial personnel challenges before (Proposition 47) which now burdens our already stressed caseloads and (the law) ultimately will degrade the quality of life in Merced County,” Morse told the Merced Sun-Star.

“We anticipate seeing a significant increase in property crimes as a result (of Proposition 47),” he said.

Petitions from people seeking to reduce their felony convictions are also challenging the Public Defender’s Office in Merced County. Public Defender David Elgin did not have specific numbers available Friday, but he described the increased workload for his 14 attorneys as “significant.”

The new law will almost certainly increase the misdemeanor caseload for both their offices, Elgin and Morse acknowledged.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke, who, along with Morse, opposed Proposition 47, said the new law has affected the Sheriff’s Department. Since the law passed, jail bookings have fallen about 25 percent in Merced County.

Warnke acknowledged the positive impact for the jail and its staff, but said he believes that consequence may be the only positive result of the new law.

But that’s not how the American Civil Liberties Union sees it. The ACLU was one of the primary backers of Proposition 47 during the run-up to the November election.

Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, a senior policy advocate for the ACLU of California, said it’s still too early to know what the full impact of the new law will be but anticipates it will be “good for everyone in California.”

“It allows us to spend less money incarcerating people and to use that money for rehabilitation, education and treatment, while still holding (criminals) accountable for their actions,” Dooley-Sammuli said Friday.

She said Proposition 47 “allows the punishment to more appropriately and proportionally fit the crime.”

“It took control of a wasteful sentencing structure and reformed it so we’re not locking up low-level offenders for long periods of time, which overcrowds our jails and prisons and typically leaves everybody worse off,” Dooley-Sammuli said.

The increased workload for prosecutors and public defenders will be the short-term consequence of a long-term solution to California’s chronic incarceration population problems, supporters argue.

Morse also said it’s still too early in the process to fully understand the effects of the new law, but that “the unintended consequences of this short-sighted law will ultimately be negative in Merced County.”

“We’ve always been in favor of treatment and rehabilitation and getting people back to being productive contributors to their families and to the community,” he said.

Prior to the new law, Morse said, a person with a history of petty theft convictions could be charged with a felony if arrested for the same crime again and potentially taken off the streets for a significant amount of time.

“That’s not the case anymore; it gets charged as a misdemeanor automatically,” Morse said. “This simply takes away our discretion as prosecutors to most effectively handle the cases that come through our office.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2015 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Dozens of felons apply for reduced convictions in Merced County."