LOS ANGELES – With nearly 25 years of successful prosecutions, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney has officially announced he will run for Los Angeles County District Attorney in 2024 and win.
“It’s clear that the criminal justice system in Los Angeles County is broken, and the time to fix it is now!” McKinney said of his announcement to run for LA County District Attorney. “Every day I speak with Los Angelenos who tell me more and more how unsafe they and their families feel walking our streets while living and working in our city. As a prosecutor committed to protecting the innocent through the fair and ethical prosecution of the guilty, it has been a painful experience over the past two years to watch Mr. Gascon inexplicably tilt the scales of justice to the extreme in favor of those committing crimes and away from those made to suffer them.”
McKinney was hired as a prosecutor by then-LA District Attorney Gil Garcetti in 1998. Since then, he has served four district attorneys, including Garcetti, Steve Cooley, Jackie Lacey, and Gascón.
McKinney led the successful prosecution of Eric Holder Jr. for the 2019 murder of American rapper, businessman, and community leader Nipsey Hussle. Holder’s defense attorneys put immense pressure on McKinney to have the charges reduced from first-degree murder to manslaughter. McKinney held fast and rejected the manslaughter defense, and the jury agreed, convicting Holder of first-degree murder in July 2022.
The career prosecutor is committed to restoring public trust and safety by committing the DA’s office to assess each case separately and each person individually, consistent with his belief in proportional justice. As evidence of his leadership characteristics, McKinney was one of the first publicly vocal critics of Gascon and his policies in a speech courageously delivered at the Hall of Justice on December 31, 2020.
“I am not running for District Attorney to offer platitudes to the failures and tragedies of our yesterdays; I am running for District Attorney to secure the safety and prosperity of the future for all Angelenos.”
Mckinney is no stranger to adversity. His life has been filled with challenges beginning with the death of both parents by age five, to surviving a street culture of rampant crack cocaine, crime, and violence, to his acceptance to the UCLA School of Law, culminating in a perfect trial record over 10 years in the elite Major Crimes Division of the District Attorney’s Office.
Meeting and overcoming some of life’s most difficult challenges, together with a 25-year career, has uniquely prepared Mckinney to lead the nation’s largest local criminal justice system.
McKinney’s achievements have clearly distinguished him as the “People’s Prosecutor,” making him the right man, for the right job, at just the right time!
For more information about the McKinney campaign, visit McKinney4LA.com or contact the media team at media@mckinney4la.com.
