In 1981, when Chesa Boudin was 14 months old, his parents — members of the radical and violent Weather Underground — left him with a babysitter so they could take part in an armored car robbery. It became one of New York’s most notorious botched heists, a crime that left two police officers and a Brink’s truck guard dead in a New York suburb.
Thirty-eight years later, Boudin is set to become San Francisco’s top prosecutor. In a matter of weeks, he will be sworn in as the city’s district attorney, the latest in a line of prosecutors seen as criminal justice reformers who are taking the reins across the country.
Like his peers on the left, Boudin ran on a platform of ending “mass incarceration,” eliminating cash bail, creating a unit to review wrongful convictions and refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as well as prosecuting ICE agents who violate so-called sanctuary city laws. He also wants to move the district attorney’s office away from prosecuting prostitution and minor quality-of-life crimes to focus, instead, on taking on corporations and prioritizing the most serious offenses.
Boudin, 39, spent decades visiting his parents in prison and, as a result, learned the ins and outs of the criminal justice system from a unique vantage point. Boudin’s parents were getaway drivers in the attempted Brink’s robbery in 1981 in Nanuet, New York, about 35 miles north of New York City. His mother, Kathy Boudin, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery and was imprisoned for more than two decades. His father, David Gilbert, is still behind bars after he was convicted of murder and robbery.
Hellbound and Down 