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JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
Thu May 9, 2019, 03:38 AM May 2019

I love Kamala Harris plan to help public defenders

(CNN) Sen. Kamala Harris, who spent her entire legal career as a prosecutor, will introduce legislation Wednesday aimed at helping the other side of the legal scale -- publicly funded defense attorneys.

Harris' bill seeks to level the playing field between prosecutor and public defender. The bill would set workload limits for full-time public defenders and, within five years, make pay equal between public defenders and prosecutors, funded by a $250 million federal grant program. Dubbed the 'Ensuring Quality Access to Legal Defense' (EQUAL) Act, the bill also authorizes funds for training public defenders and reauthorizing student loan repayment programs.

According to a copy of Harris' bill previewed by CNN, the purpose of the legislation is "to protect the rights of defendants in criminal cases to due process and a fair trial under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution."

"After spending my career around the criminal justice system, I've seen up close how it can fail to ensure that poor defendants receive a fair trial and due process, as guaranteed to all of us in our Constitution," Harris said in a statement provided by her Senate office."All too often, our public defenders are overworked and lack sufficient resources. This makes public defense unsustainable over the long haul. And the person who suffers is the defendant, whose liberty is on the line. It's wrong, and it's the opposite of justice."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/05/08/politics/kamala-harris-public-defender-bill/index.html

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
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sarabelle

(453 posts)
1. Kamala and Elizabeth are the only candidates with solid,workable ideas to help working men and women
Thu May 9, 2019, 06:11 AM
May 2019

I love Joe whose heart is in the right place and who would work hard to bring dignity and trust back to America. Yes, i believe that he could defeat Trump but his energy for progressive and contested policies would be weaker that either Kamala ore Elizabeths's. Its really tough to choose a candidate for us in 2020. It looks right now that Trump might hold on to his base and with the thwarting of our criminal justice system and his fascist control of our government America and its institutions and values will be totally destroyed. I really believe that our main struggle should focus on the Senate and putting as much time and money into those races that look too tough to win. Why? Because I believe there may be some surprises among those Senatorial races and that we could take back the Senate with some 2018 effort. But we have to challenge every Senate race and fight hard for it. The GOP can still ruin our nation no matter if a Democrat is elected President or not. But they have absolutely little control over anything if they do not control the Senate. With evil men like McConnell and Graham at the helm, it wouldn't matter much who the Democratic President would be. They would continue to do the same things they did to Obama and what they continue to do with Trump as President. We need our candidates out there campaigning against GOP Senators as much as against Trump. But without the Senate, Trump is virtually a toothless idiot lion in a cage.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
 

DemocracyMouse

(2,275 posts)
2. I think a Warren/Harris presidency would be very workable
Thu May 9, 2019, 06:43 AM
May 2019

Line them up in order of age so Harris can take the helm in 4 years. Good transition team to de-bug our flailing democratic institutions.

As for fixing the public defender program. I'm all for it. Could have used it when I was unfairly arrested for defending our democracy with posters in the streets of New York. My volunteer lawyer never turned up to court and I ended up with a fine.... for defending democracy!

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
 

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
3. I like that a lot also. True, principled liberalism.
Thu May 9, 2019, 07:25 AM
May 2019

Last edited Thu May 9, 2019, 08:01 AM - Edit history (1)

In comparison, Amy Klobuchar was also a prosecutor in an era of widespread demand for being "tough on crime," and she has not been eager to move on from that period to the degree Harris has, consistent with her more centrist positioning in the midwest.

However, Klobuchar has been solidly behind reforms that make the process more just and protect the innocent. She's worth examining in comparison to Harris as an example of what it is to be a centrist Democrat in the midwest -- as opposed to what today's knuckledragger Republicans tend to espouse.

Vox: For example, she ran on a community prosecution model that put prosecutors in specific neighborhoods so they could build better ties with the community.

Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the Innocence Project, said Klobuchar was also an early ally of the innocence movement, which pushed for the use of DNA testing and other new technologies to get innocent people out of prison. Scheck acknowledged that Klobuchar, like other prosecutors at the time, fit the mold of “tough on crime” in many ways, but she was also uniquely supportive of efforts to improve eyewitness identification and recording police interviews — two crucial causes for the Innocence Project at the time.

“It was very important to us to have prosecutors who would support these two reforms,” he told me. “Amy Klobuchar was a very strong proponent, knew the details, knew how to do it, and even contributed in helping with field experiments and publications.”

Since leaving law enforcement, Klobuchar has taken some steps toward criminal justice reform. She voted for the First Step Act, a widely supported reform measure that President Trump signed into law. She acknowledged on Meet the Press last year “that there is racism in the [criminal justice] system that needs to be fixed.”


Well, yes. Less liberal Klobuchar is not exactly at the forefront of criminal justice reform as more liberal Harris is positioning herself, but both are solid Democrats concerned that justice be real.
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

USALiberal

(10,877 posts)
4. The public defenders should have the same budget as the state does! Nt
Thu May 9, 2019, 08:27 AM
May 2019
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

MerryBlooms

(11,728 posts)
5. k&r I hope her bill gets the attention it deserves and moves forward.
Thu May 9, 2019, 09:23 AM
May 2019
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
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