A gang member allegedly killed a cop 9 days after he got out of jail. Are California's justice reforms to blame?
LOS ANGELES - In the heated debate over California's efforts to slash its prison population, the case of Michael Christopher Mejia has become a political rallying cry.
An admitted gang member, Mejia was charged last year with shooting two Whittier police officers - a crime the city's mayor and many in law enforcement saw as clear evidence of the failure of less strict sentencing laws.
Why, they asked, was Mejia even on the streets?
The killing of Officer Keith Boyer and wounding of another officer have galvanized a movement to ask state voters this November to reverse some of the recent changes to sentencing laws and the prison system.
But a review of the case by the Los Angeles Times and the Marshall Project found a far more complex chain of events that allowed Mejia to remain free despite his record of criminal behavior.
This is the first in an occasional series examining the impact of recent justice measures aimed at reducing incarceration. It is a collaboration between The Times and The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news outlet.
Confidential findings by criminal justice experts appointed by Los Angeles County to examine Mejia's case identified local law-enforcement failures that had little to do with the state's justice reforms.
The group concluded that Mejia was allowed to cycle in and out of jail with little punishment
