Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on the death of a Japanese woman, Hanako Abe, in San Francisco, a case that sparked a movement to recall a district attorney and rekindled debate about criminal justice policy in the United States.

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SAN FRANCISCO--Troy McAlister walked into a courtroom here on the morning of Sept. 20, wearing an orange sweatshirt and a white face mask.

The 47-year-old twirled the long sleeves of his sweatshirt while sitting in a chair in front of the judge.

McAlister was charged with vehicular manslaughter over the death of Hanako Abe, 27, on New Year’s Eve in 2020.

According to court documents, McAlister was born in San Francisco. He was a teenager when his father, who served in the military, died.

At the age of 15, McAlister started using drugs and dropped out of high school. From around the age of 20, he began to commit crimes, such as robbery.

In 2015, McAlister committed a robbery.

While awaiting trial for that and other charges, McAlister cut a plea bargain deal with Chesa Boudin, who had been appointed San Francisco district attorney in January 2020.

Under the deal, McAlister pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2020. But since he had already been detained for five years while awaiting trial, the sentence was for “time served,” and he was released on parole.

In general in plea bargain deals, suspects plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a more lenient sentence. Such arrangements are common in the United States to save on the costs, time and manpower of holding a criminal trial.

Boudin argued that lengthy prison sentences were not only increasing the costs of running detention facilities but were also failing to rehabilitate offenders.

His policy was to reduce the prison population.

According to Susan Dyer Reynolds, a local journalist who covered Hanako’s case, McAlister was arrested five times in eight months after his release on parole in April 2020.

In June that year, McAlister was arrested on suspicion of theft while he was in someone else's apartment.

In November that year, police arrested McAlister on suspicion of drug possession and other charges after receiving a report of a car break-in near a state university.

A police officer who saw McAlister’s criminal record warned about him in a document submitted to prosecutors.

“This suspect is dangerous. He has 73 felonies and 34 misdemeanors in S.F. alone,” the document said.

Still, the DA’s office, headed by Boudin, kept releasing McAlister without indictment.

In December, he was arrested on suspicion of possession of a stolen vehicle and drug paraphernalia. Again, he was not prosecuted.

Just 11 days after that arrest, he robbed a restaurant and fatally hit Hanako and another woman in a stolen car, according to police.

“WE ARE HERE FOR HANAKO”

At the time of Hanako’s death, COVID-19 was spreading widely across San Francisco. Media reports said the security situation in the city was deteriorating and citizens were growing concerned.

In June this year, I visited the Tenderloin district, which is considered a symbolic example of the deteriorating safety in the city.

Used syringes had been discarded likely by drug addicts here and there. Many people were sleeping on the streets in the daytime.

“During COVID, homeless people were everywhere on street corners. It was pretty bad,” said Judy Young, 48, who has lived in the Tenderloin district for more than 40 years.

She heads a civic group that supports immigrants from Asia.

The number of drug addicts and homeless people sharply increased in the area during the coronavirus pandemic.

In December last year, Mayor London Breed declared a three-month state of emergency in the Tenderloin district and stepped up efforts to crack down on drug trafficking.

In 2020, more than 700 people died from drug overdoses in the city, more than double the number of deaths from COVID-19.

Crimes such as theft have also increased in San Francisco since the pandemic started.

A video showing a group of young people fleeing with stolen items from a luxury brand store in the city center went viral in the United States.

Boudin, criticized as being “soft on crime,” was largely blamed for the perceived deterioration of public security.

After Hanako’s death and the lenient treatment of McAlister came to light, a movement started seeking the recall of Boudin.

On May 22, at a park on a hill overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, a city councilor said at a rally seeking Boudin’s ouster, “We are here for Hanako.”

The United States has a dual judicial system: federal and state.

Federal prosecutors are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

State prosecutors are determined by districts, such as counties, and are often elected. In California, all elected officials can be subject to a recall.

The recall movement against Boudin started almost immediately after Hanako’s death.

More than 80,000 signatures were collected, and in the recall election in June this year, voters removed him from office.

One person who attended the May 22 rally was Brooke Jenkins, 41, a former subordinate of Boudin who resigned from the DA’s office to protest his policies.

Jenkins said Boudin should have at least put McAlister, who had a history of drug use, into rehab instead of releasing him.

“He should have never been out in the first place,” Jenkins said of McAlister.

San Francisco is considered one of the most liberal cities in the United States, which made the movement to recall a progressive prosecutor even more unusual.

The recall vote drew nationwide media attention.

(Marie Louise Leone contributed to this article.)