Video – Attorney Darryl Stallworth Discusses How Gang Related Criminal Charges Are Used By District Attorneys

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

Another aspect that you focus on in your practice, and it’s on your website, is gang related crimes.  And that’s interesting, because as you watch today’s news, you see a lot more articles and news reports being identified as this gang did this…there’s a gang of this…there’s a gang of robbers.  There’s a group of people doing this.  How easy it is it for the District Attorney’s office to get a conviction on gang related crimes.

Darryl Stallworth – Criminal Defense Attorney – Alameda County, CA

A number of years ago, there was a real troubling part of the gang enhancement, that said that if you were associated with someone and you committed a crime, that person you were associated with was a member of the gang, then they will conclude that that crime was done for the benefit of the gang.  So if you robbed a car, if you stole somebody’s purse, or if you murder somebody, and you were associated with the gang, the mere violent act meant that you were building the repetition of the gang, and that would increase your sentencing. 

Most recently, however… the law has changed and said that you can’t just strap on the gang enhancement.  You can’t associate someone with the gang or make the argument that they were acting on the benefit of the gang, unless there is a real serious connection with you being a gang member.  And that takes a little bit more work.  You’ve got to go back through the tattoos, the classification.  Typically, now you have to find something in that person’s background where they’ve admitted to being a gang member. 

Sadly, because of all the video on social media, there’s a lot of people that are not looking out for themselves with gang signs and admitting that they are members of the gang.  And if that happens, then you’re going to get the enhancement with your crime, and that’s going to result in what we call more exposure.  Instead of doing ten years, you can be doing twenty years because of the gang enhancement. 

But…most recently, it’s been watered down a bit.  And you can’t just strap on the gang enhancement the way that you used to.