Media Contact
Noah McKee
nmckee@jjay.cuny.edu

August 9, 2023

THE INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION IN PROSECUTION STATEMENT ON GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS’S SUSPENSION OF STATE ATTORNEY MONIQUE WORRELL

New York - Following Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s suspension of State Attorney Monique Worrell, the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution’s Executive Director Rachel Marshall issued the following statement: 

“The IIP strongly condemns Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s suspension of State Attorney Monique Worrell. Governor DeSantis’s action undermines the foundation of our legal system and flouts the will of the local community who overwhelmingly elected State Attorney Worrell.

Communities elect prosecutors to be responsive to local priorities; prosecutors serve and are accountable to those same communities.  Florida Governor DeSantis’s removal of a locally-elected prosecutor and installation of his own, unelected replacement defies any purported commitment to democracy. 

Governor DeSantis’s action is only the latest in a national, coordinated strategy to target reform prosecutors—including the passage of SB 92 in Georgia, which allows for the removal of prosecutors based on their constitutionally protected use of discretion. 

These organized attacks on prosecutorial discretion are a one-way ratchet: we have not seen efforts to undermine prosecutorial discretion when prosecutors seek overly harsh sentences, are responsible for egregious wrongful convictions, or decline to hold those in power accountable. Instead, is it only when prosecutors respond to their community demands for criminal justice reform that we see these bad faith restrictions on prosecutorial independence.

As these unprecedented attacks on prosecutorial independence continue, the IIP will continue to support the rights of prosecutors to make decisions that serve the communities that elected them."

Governor DeSantis’s action comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by four Georgia prosecutors challenging a new law that undermines the right to prosecutorial discretion. IIP Executive Director Rachel Marshall outlined the gravity of these attacks on prosecutorial discretion in a recent op-ed published in CNN, which can be found here.

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About the IIP
The Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (IIP) provides a collaborative national platform that brings together prosecutors, policy experts, and the communities they serve to promote data-driven strategies, cutting-edge scholarship, and innovative thinking.  The IIP is dedicated to criminal justice that promotes community-centered standards of safety, fairness, and dignity.