Anthony Joseph Rackauckas Jr. (born March 18, 1943) is a former District Attorney of Orange County, California, and a former Superior Court judge.
After losing his reelection bid for a sixth term as Orange County DA in 2018, Rackauckas has come under fire for allegedly fabricating evidence related to a rape and kidnapping case.
[citation needed] Rackauckas left private practice in 1990 when he was appointed by California Governor George Deukmejian to be a municipal court judge.
This resulted in the "taking off the table" of the death penalty for Scott Dekraai, who had pleaded guilty to murdering eight people and wounding another in the Seal Beach massacre.
[citation needed] After the electoral defeat, Rackauckas admitted during a deposition that he had used a high profile sexual assault case to increase his chances of winning the election.