OLD_San Francisco Public Defender's Office

November 5, 2020

San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju’s Statement on Election’s Implications for Criminal Justice Reform in California

“2020 has been a year of divisive politics and a national reckoning with racism, police brutality, and systemic injustice. However, this week there was consensus across California: voters made clear their desire to continue on a path of meaningful criminal justice reform.  

Across the state, people voted for measures that will increase law enforcement accountability, and decrease reliance on incarceration as a public safety tool. While there are ballots left to count, all of these propositions are headed for victory. Proposition 17 will restore voting rights to thousands of Californians who are currently on parole. In San Francisco, voters have largely supported Proposition D to establish formal oversight of our Sheriff’s department and the way in which they operate our jail system, as well as Proposition E to remove an outdated mandatory staffing minimum of police officers and send the SFPD through the annual budget process that all city departments must go through to justify and secure staffing. I am also encouraged to see that Sonoma County supported Proposition P to establish Sheriff oversight there and that Measure J was successful in Los Angeles, which is a vote for investing in community improvements and alternatives to incarceration.

Californians appear to have strongly rejected Proposition 20, which would have rolled back decades of reform efforts that my office and voters have supported to end mass incarceration in our state. Proposition 25 is also likely to fail, striking down the previously passed bail reform bill SB 10. While it would have ended the inherently unfair cash bail system, Proposition 25 would have replaced cash bail with a system requiring the use of risk assessment tools in making decisions to release or detain people in jail. Risk assessment tools have been shown to discriminate against communities of color, immigrants, and people from low-income neighborhoods.

My office has long fought for bail reform in the courts, which has resulted in the Humphrey case currently pending review by the California Supreme Court. If the case is upheld, it will abolish the practice of using high money bail to detain poor people. The ruling makes clear that judges must consider non-monetary alternatives to money bail when making pretrial release decisions.

Much work is left to be done. I will continue to listen to the needs of the communities my office serves and work with lawmakers and stakeholders as we focus on repairing and reimagining the justice system and redefining public safety.”

October 28, 2020 

PRESS CONTACT: San Francisco Public Defender’s Office – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org

SF Public Defender’s Office Wins Acquittal for Client Accused of Carjacking and Robbery

SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, a jury acquitted a client of the Public Defender of all carjacking and robbery charges stemming from an incident in May. The jury found that Valentine Sua, 28, did not “use force or fear” with the intent to steal the car of a man who had stopped to help him jump-start his own vehicle, but rather had fled from an unfortunate miscommunication to avoid interacting with police.   

On May 2, 2020, Sua was visiting family and friends in San Francisco’s Sunnydale neighborhood, and video surveillance showed that Sua had asked several people to help him jump-start his car. When a man in a Prius offered to help, Sua was confused by its quiet start and assumed that the man hadn’t turned on the car. Sua reached into the Prius and asked for the key. The man, who had immigrated from China just a year prior and did not fully understand what Sua was saying, got out of the car. By the time Sua had gotten into the driver seat of the Prius to jump-start his car, he saw that the man was running away. Sua panicked and fled, and was arrested shortly thereafter. He was charged with carjacking and robbery, but the jury found him not guilty on both counts.

The key evidence was established when the defense was able to show surveillance footage showing that Sua had been trying to jump-start his car all day. The original camera footage that SFPD investigators provided to the prosecution was a compilation produced by Watchtower Security, the company contracted to operate the cameras. “The compilation showed many of Mr. Sua’s activities that day, but I had to request the raw footage to discover that he had been flagging down cars all day asking people to help start his car,” said Deputy Public Defender Eric Fleischaker. “This helped prove to the jury that Mr. Sua was intending to start his own car, not to steal someone else’s.”

“Mr. Sua’s panicked flight response was based on his previous interactions with police while growing up in Sunnydale where he has always felt like the police assume he’s guilty,” said Fleischaker. “After system involvement in his younger years, he had gotten his life back on track with a job promotion, a wife, and a child. With so much to lose, his reaction was to flee.”

The defense team called upon a social worker, Larry Jones Jr. – who also grew up in Sunnydale public housing – to provide cultural insight to Sua’s response. Jones spoke about the nearly constant and often negative police presence in the few square blocks of Sunnydale, which is monitored at all times by fifty-nine surveillance cameras. 

October 1, 2020

PRESS CONTACT: SF Public Defender’s Office – (628)249-7946 – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org

SF Public Defender Mano Raju’s Statement on Criminal Justice Reform Bills Signed by Governor Newsom

“In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a shortened legislative session, and a powerful national grassroots movement demanding systemic change in the criminal legal system, my office was proud to support, and advocate on behalf of, a number of statewide bills this session in collaboration with justice advocates across the state. 

I am pleased that Governor Newsom has signed several bills which will significantly impact the lives of justice-involved people and their families, especially in this time of national reckoning over racism and state violence. I am also grateful to the amazing advocates, many of whom are directly impacted by the criminal legal system themselves, who have worked tirelessly in the fight for justice for years. My office is proud and humbled to work alongside all of you. 

I am committed to continuing the efforts to hold law enforcement more accountable, redirecting funding from the criminal legal system to community services and families, and reducing the cost of people remaining in touch with their incarcerated loved ones across the state. 

ROOTING OUT RACISM IN THE CRIMINAL LEGAL SYSTEM 

My office was a strong supporter of the California Racial Justice Act, AB 2542, authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra – a former public defender. Governor Newsom signed this bill which prohibits the state from seeking or obtaining a criminal conviction, or from imposing a sentence, based upon race, ethnicity or national origin.

Public defenders are keenly aware of the need to root out racial discrimination at every level of society, and particularly in the criminal legal system where it robs people of their rights and livelihoods in courtrooms every day. AB 2542 strengthens our ability to defend people and ensure convictions are not based on racial or ethnic bias.

SHORTER PROBATION PERIODS

Another bill signed into law that stands to have a major impact on our clients, their families, and the state as a whole is Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager’s bill AB 1950. This bill will reduce the length of probation periods. This bill will allow people to more quickly move forward with their lives and reduce the risk of added jail time for minor “technical violations.” This also means people with criminal records will be eligible to have their records cleared faster, which will help open the door to jobs, housing and educational opportunities. 

When people on probation are needlessly sent to jail for “technical violations” – like missing a meeting because they had to work or go to the hospital – it is a tremendous setback to their progress and comes at a high cost to our state. By shortening probation periods, AB 1950 gives justice-involved people a better chance of exiting the revolving door of the legal system permanently.

INCREASING JURY DIVERSITY

The Governor signed two bills that will have a positive impact on our ability to seat more diverse juries, which should lead to decisions that are more likely to be fair and trusted by our communities.

AB 3070, authored by Assemblymember Dr. Shirley Weber, will prohibit using a peremptory challenge to remove a prospective juror on the basis of the prospective juror’s race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, or religious affiliation.

As public defenders, it is devastating to see clients take unwarranted plea deals simply because they don’t think they can get a fair trial when nobody on the jury looks like them. Prosecutors have used thinly veiled tactics to eliminate jurors of color for things such as having a justice-involved family member or living in a certain neighborhood. AB 3070 seeks to root out implicit and intentional bias that too often prevents us from seating a jury of one’s peers.

SB 592, authored by Senator Scott Wiener, will broaden the pool of eligible jurors by adding state tax filers to the list that jury commissioners use when assembling jury pools.

We need to do everything we can to ensure more racially- and economically-diverse juries to protect people’s rights and enhance the fairness of our legal system. By expanding jury pools to include anyone who files taxes in California, SB 592 will move us closer to seating juries who represent a true cross-section of society.

JUVENILE JUSTICE

The Governor signed SB 823, an historic budget trailer bill for youth justice that will close the Department of Juvenile Justice, California’s statewide youth prison system. 

Our office has been a national leader in keeping youth out of prison and taking a holistic approach to working with youth and their families. When we offer solid alternatives that provide a strong path to rehabilitation, judges know that it’s the right thing to do. SB 823 responsibly dismantles the DJJ and shifts funding to counties to develop better ways to support families and youth development rather than perpetuate ineffective punishment.

Additionally, the Governor signed SB 1290, co-authored by Senators Durazo and Mitchell, to vacate debts incurred by having contact with the juvenile justice system before January 2018, when many of the associated costs became illegal. 

Having a child become justice-involved can be one of the scariest and most stressful things a family can face, and the debt that often results from such contact can harm families long after a case is resolved. SB 1290 gives young people and their families the debt forgiveness they deserve.

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Governor Newsom also signed Assemblymember Rob Bonta’s bill, AB 3228, which empowers people to hold private prison operators accountable for their rampant abuse. During the pandemic, our Immigration Defense Unit discovered that GEO Group – a multi-billion dollar corporation that contracts with ICE to run immigrant detention facilities – boldly lied about their willingness and ability to protect people’s lives. 

We desperately need to end the use of private detention, which elevates profits above the safety and humanity of the people in their custody. AB 3228 gives those who have been harmed by for-profit civil detention and criminal facilities the ability to seek justice against these private corporations that violate their contracts.

DECARCERATION

AB 3234, authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting, will help reduce the incarcerated population in California. This bill enhances the authority of a superior court judge to offer diversion programs to people with pending criminal charges. It will also amend the Elderly Parole Program, lowering the eligibility age from 60 to 50 years old, and the minimum amount of continuous incarceration served on their sentence before they are eligible from 25 years to 20 years. 

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

I am disappointed that Governor Newsom vetoed our bill, SB 555 by Senator Holly Mitchell. This bill would have provided important financial relief to families of incarcerated loved ones by capping the cost of phone calls and video communications, and would have reduced mark-ups on commissary items in county jails across the state. Allowing telecom companies to price gouge incarcerated people and their families is simply wrong – especially when so many people in jails are already low-income. In San Francisco, we’ve been able to make jail calls free, and I am committed to getting this done on the state level. I appreciate the Governor’s commitment to working on this with our office, and look forward to implementing this critical reform alongside him.”

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