Brooklyn’s Acting DA Kicks Off Campaign For Full-Term Election

Today, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced that he is running to be elected to a full term.

Gonzalez has led the Kings County District Attorney’s Office since last October when District Attorney Ken Thompson died after a battle with cancer.

Gonzalez was chosen by then-District Attorney Ken Thompson to pursue a Conviction Review Unit, to examine hundreds of questionable convictions from recent decades and restore justice to the wrongly accused. To date, the office has overturned 22 wrongful convictions with another 100 under active review.

He’s continued on Thompson’s initiatives of criminal justice reform, like vacating decades-old low-level warrants; and protecting Brooklyn’s immigrant populations by expanding the Immigration Unit to protect Brooklyn immigrants from deportation; and creating a Young Adult Court to help young men and women avoid the revolving door of arrest and incarceration.

“[Gonzalez] has worked to end the unnecessary prosecution of low-level nuisance crimes and ensure our criminal justice system doesn’t exploit black and brown New Yorkers,” said 32BJ President Hector Figueroa.

Gonzalez, a Brooklyn native, graduated from John Dewey High School in Coney Island, then went on to Cornell University and the University of Michigan Law School where he was president of the Latino Law Student Association.

Gonzalez has already been endorsed by the Transit Workers Union Local 100, Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, Inc. and the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union. Public advocate Letitia James and City Council Member Brad Lander were in attendance today to show their support, along with other community leaders.

“Keeping Brooklyn safe, reducing incarceration for young adults, providing second chances and ensuring equal justice for all Brooklyn families, that is my life’s work,” he said.