Re: Fact check: Did Kamala Harris block evidence that would have freed inmates

[Harris the pole smoker]

On 30 Dec 2023, Tranny Trump <el...@protonmail.com> posted some
news:umqou0$1kcc4$1...@dont-email.me:

> Two crooks in the same office. What could go wrong?

Update: Joe Biden’s choice on Aug. 11 of Sen. Kamala Harris brings to
the Democratic ticket a woman who has won three times statewide in
California — but has also been a polarizing figure. Read more here:
Kamala Harris in California: Big winner but a polarizing figure. During
Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, former Vice President
Joe Biden and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard went after California
Sen. Kamala Harris over her record as the state’s attorney general and
San Francisco’s district attorney. Biden alluded to a crime lab scandal
that involved her district attorney’s office and resulted in more than
1,000 drug cases being dismissed. Gabbard claimed Harris “blocked
evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the
courts forced her to do so.” Biden’s claim that 1,000 drug cases had to
be dismissed when Harris was D.A. is accurate, although Harris has
denied knowing about the problems with the crime lab that triggered
those dismissals until the issue became public. Gabbard is correct that
Harris did not pursue all evidence in the case she referenced, but the
innocence of the inmate in question has yet to be determined. Longtime
San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi criticized Harris’s handling
of the crime lab situation back in 2010 and during a January interview
with The Sacramento Bee. The San Francisco drug lab was shut down after
a lead technician, who testified on behalf of prosecutors on drug cases,
was found to have systematically mishandled the drug samples seized from
suspects, even consuming some herself. While the San Francisco Police
Department was responsible for running the lab, not Harris’s district
attorney office, a court ruled in 2010 that the district attorney’s
office violated defendants’ constitutional rights by not disclosing what
it knew about the tainted drug evidence. Judge Anne-Christine Masullo
wrote in her decision that prosecutors “at the highest levels of the
district attorney’s office knew that Madden was not a dependable witness
at trial and that there were serious concerns regarding the crime lab.”
And the Wall Street Journal reported in June that Harris ignored staff
recommendations back in 2005 urging her office to establish a defendants
rights policy, known as the Brady doctrine, that would have mandated her
staff to disclose such information to defendants. Harris has denied
being aware of the drug lab issues at the time and also noted that her
office implemented a Brady policy after the drug lab scandal came to her
attention. Her office dismissed an estimated 1,000 cases as a result.

KEVIN COOPER CASE In February, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered new
DNA testing in the 1983 murder case of Kevin Cooper. Cooper came within
hours of execution in 2004 after being charged with the murders of an
adult couple and two children. Harris opposed the testing when she was
the state’s attorney general. She has since said she supports DNA
testing and encouraged Newsom to approve Cooper’s request. She did not
offer specifics on why she did not approve the testing during her
tenure. In response to a request for comment, Harris’s campaign pointed
to a past statement where the senator called a New York Times columnist
last year, telling him, “I feel awful about this.” The testing is not
yet complete. Whether Gabbard’s claim that the testing “would” have
exonerated him remains an open question. Harris defended her criminal
justice record Wednesday night. “As elected attorney general of
California I did the work of significantly reforming the criminal
justice system of a state of 40 million people, which became a national
model of the work that needs to be done, and I am proud of that work.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add more detail on the
Kevin Cooper and crime lab cases.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article2333
75207.html