California prosecutors are taking a more aggressive stance on the fentanyl crisis by charging drug suppliers with murder if fentanyl distribution results in a death.
While the state’s larger cities, such as San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento, have traditionally used less punitive approaches to drug-related cases, counties in the outskirts of the progressive municipalities with a stronger GOP presence are beginning to ramp up their efforts on the matter.
Mike Hestrin, a district attorney for Riverside County, California, has charged 34 alleged fentanyl suppliers with homicide over three years and is the first state prosecutor to secure a guilty verdict for a fentanyl-related murder case, the New York Times reported.
Last year, a jury found Vicente David Romero guilty of second-degree murder after he knowingly supplied a pill containing a deadly dosage of fentanyl
Read more…
