Ricardo García (attorney)


Ricardo García is an American criminal defense attorney and an advocate for criminal justice reform. Garcia is currently the public defender for the Los Angeles County Public Defender's office, the largest public defender's office in the United States. Garcia is Los Angeles County's eleventh Public Defender and LA County's first Latino Public Defender.
Garcia has served as an adjunct professor at California Western School of Law and on the faculty at the Shechmeister Death Penalty College at Santa Clara University.

Early life & education

Garcia was born in Los Angeles and spent time in both the Mexico City and Los Angeles areas as a child. Both of his parents were born and raised in Mexico. Garcia graduated from Santa Monica High School.
After high school, Garcia enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz, becoming the first person in his family to go to college. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of California Santa Cruz. He went on to attend UC Berkeley School of Law.

Legal career

San Diego County Public Defender's Office

After law school, he started working in the San Diego County Public Defender's office in 1995. During his time in San Diego, Garcia worked for the alternate public defender's office and the multiple conflicts/major cases section.
Garcia handled several high profile cases while in the San Diego County Public Defender's Office. He represented Nathaniel Gann who was accused of conspiring with his sister to kill her stepfather. Gann was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Garcia represented Jorge Rojas Lopez an alleged member of Los Palillos, a group operating within the Tijuana Cartel. In the case, the district attorney was seeking the death penalty. During the guilt phase, Rojas was convicted of several murders and kidnappings while the jury was deadlocked on several other murder counts against Rojas. During the penalty phase, the jury deadlocked on whether to impose the death penalty. After the hung jury, he ultimately pleaded guilty to unresolved counts in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. The trial lasted nearly fifteen months, making it the longest criminal jury trial in the history of San Diego County.

American Civil Liberties Union

From 2004 to 2006, Garcia served as the Criminal Justice Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, where he was responsible for monitoring the consent decree with the Los Angeles Police Department as well as conditions within the L.A. County jails.

Los Angeles County Public Defender

In 2018, Garcia was selected by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to be the Public Defender for Los Angeles County.
Since his appointment, Garcia has successfully advocated for the board of supervisors to end the use of pepper spray on kids in juvenile halls and probation camps.
When California Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on the death penalty, Garcia supported the move. He wrote: “The governor’s decision brings California closer to ending the death penalty, a deeply flawed and racially biased system that fails to improve public safety.”

Awards