Brianna Kupfer murder: Vigil held for UCLA grad student murdered while working in high-end furniture store

A Los Angeles County deputy public defender co-authored a proposal in 2020 arguing for the creation of a “needs-based pre-trial release system” from jail.

Rachel Pendleton co-wrote the paper while in law school at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. The proposal was part of a bail reform practicum within the criminal justice program at the law school.

The proposal, “Creating a needs-based pre-trial release system: The false dichotomy of money bail versus risk assessment tools,” offers to “re-envision the pre-trial release process.”

The plan offers a pretrial release “framework” that does not rely on money bail or risk-assessment tools and states the presumption of innocence in the pretrial process “can only be protected through a presumption of release.”

Outside view of the Men Central Jail, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, May 12, 2020, in Los Angeles, California
(Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

“It puts the burden on prosecutors to meet an articulated standard regarding why an individual should be detained. The proposal does not use risk assessment tools, as there are concerns that these tools may result in greater numbers of people of color being subjected to pretrial detention, and rejects the notion that individuals should be viewed through a lens of risk,” the proposal states.

Pendleton argues in the co-authored proposal that instead of the current pretrial process, every person “should be considered individually based on their strengths and self-identified needs and be offered the supports and resources they may need.”

The proposal also calls for the establishment of a “new body,” the “community care and support agency,” whose mission would be to “provide support and resources to individuals pre-trial instead of law enforcement supervision.”

In arguing against the usage of risk-assessment tools, the authors state that the tool depends “on data such as prior arrests, convictions, and failures to appear, the data may reflect the actions and biases of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges far more accurately than the ‘risk’ of any given individual.”

The authors state that under their proposal, predetention can only be allowed if the individual “poses a high risk of intentional nonappearance” or “will pose a risk of serious physical violence to an identifiable person and that no condition(s) of release could reasonably mitigate these two risks.”

A Los Angeles Police officer badge
(iStock)

If the individual poses a “risk of serious physical violence to an identifiable person,” the prosecutor “must show that there are no less restrictive conditions that would ensure appearance and the safety of the person claimed to be ‘at risk.'”

If the prosecutor cannot “meet this burden, the court must release the individual pre-trial.”

The community care and support agency would be in place to connect the accused individual with resources to “ensure return to court” and also would provide “resources to meet individual’s needs.”

Jonathan Hatami, deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, told Fox News Digital that the proposal could lead to “horrible consequences” and said that if this proposal is implemented, someone charged with murder could be released from pretrial detention in some circumstances.

“The author is basically saying every defendant should be released pretrial no matter the underlying charge, no matter any public safety concerns because all defendants are innocent until proven guilty,” Hatami said.

“Focusing exclusively on the criminal and completely excluding public safety and the victim leads to horrible consequences, like the murder of Brianna [Kupfer]. We have also seen the results of ‘cite and release’ all over California with massive smash-and- grabs and train thefts and robberies. So always citing out a person who commits an assault, which is many times violent, is dangerous and against public safety,” Hatami said.

Hatami argued that “bail should be based on facts, not political ideology.”

“Facts to consider are suspects’ prior record, facts of the crime itself, public safety, victims’ rights and safety, any prior failures to appear, and any bench warrants. There are many programs already in place in county jail to help and assist the wrongdoer. We don’t need to endanger the public a second time or implement some political experiment and just sit back and see what happens,” Hatami said.

On Jan. 13, Kupfer, 24, a University of California, Los Angeles graduate student, was killed while working at her job at an upscale furniture store in the city.

Brianna Kupfer was studying design as a grad student at UCLA.
(Todd Kupfer)

The man who allegedly killed Kupfer, Shawn Laval Smith, had an active warrant for assaulting a police officer, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Smith was charged with murder and a special allegation of dangerous or deadly use of a weapon, a knife.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano, Michael Ruiz and Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report

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