and you will find many ways to get involved. particularly right now, telling the governor to cut the death penalty, to convert all death sentences. if each of you were to go home and take that action, to send an e-mail message or hand write a letter to the governor, that would make a huge difference. together, we can end the death penalty in california. [applause] >> thank you for having me here today. i would like to close by saying i have had the opportunity to view this issue from every point of view, having been the warden at san quentin state prison. i am absolutely impassioned about the fact that it is time to end the death penalty in this state. life without possibility of parole is the real sentence. hold people accountable and gives them the opportunity to change within the prison system, and they can give back by working within the prison system, giving restitution to family members and working on behalf of the state of california on a variety of

projects that go on inside prisons. i also want to echo what the process said -- please join, please help -- i also want to echo what natasha said. talk to 10 of your friends, send e-mails, send letters. thank you. [applause] >> 1985, when i was sentenced to death for a crime i did not commit, i thought right away that this would be rectified. i was convicted of two different crimes. it took 18 years. it took me seven execution dates. i watched 12 then be executed while i was there -- i watched 12 and then be executed while i was there. i'm not in a position to say whether either of them -- whether any of them were guilty or innocent. mr. d.a., i am asking you, truly

consider leaving the death penalty along. let that be in god's hands, what that person goes through or deals with. there are too many flaws in our system that we cannot control and we cannot trust a man. i am asking you to consider that, to take the consideration of that. the question we did not answer was it one of these guys were in this and that was executed by a prosecutor that had evidence that was clearly convincing that that person was innocent, what would you do? that was a simple question to me. that was not a tricky question. it was a straight up question dealing with innocence and the prosecutor doing something that was considered murder or attempted murder. you could answer that. you faded around that question,

and to me, that is enough to make me think you should consider not dealing with the death penalty and joining in the fight to abolish the death penalty. we went to illinois, and i was with another group. we would go from state to state that have the death penalty and go to legislators and everyone asking them to abolish the death penalty. in the last two years, we have been successful. it appears like we are going to have to put california on our list. but that is all i wanted to say. that is something that once you take a life, you cannot bring it back. accountability needs to be on your part, too, on the district attorney's part, so if he knew a man was innocent and still prosecuted him, that a straight up murder -- that is straight up

murder. that is not malfeasance. [applause] >> i want to thank the public defender's office for putting this panel together. i understand there was a good panel this morning. these are issues that are conflicts, and they require continuing dialogue. the law is not perfect. the law is always evolving. it was an honor also to be with the other panelists here. i think that the issue of the death penalty is one that obviously is right -- ripe for us to bring this back to the voters. i think there is a great deal of evidence today that speaks to the problems of wrongful convictions. i think we all understand what the factors are. we know there is a problem with wrongful convictions -- convictions. there is certainly a problem with prisoner treatment, and

there is a problem with closure to the victims as well as the financial costs. it is up to all of us collectively to talk about how we deal with this and create a more profitable policy around dealing with very serious crimes, and i welcome the opportunity for having been here today. thank you very much. [applause] >> jeff adacci has a few closing remarks. >> i am a public defender. >> good afternoon. i am with the d a's office. >> in closing today's program, we want to first of all thank all of you for being here and being part of this discussion. no doubt, we achieved a great deal. this was not just another talking head conference where

people were just here to give a speech. you really heard engaged discussion from this morning all the way up until now. we thank our panelists because they came here with an open heart and an open mind. we are going to talk in a minute about how we are going to move things forward. i want to thank the staff of the public defender's office and the many volunteers who made this possible. we thank the library staff as well as sfgovtv for their good work here. john came here because we invited him and because he knew that he is making a difference and will continue to make a difference.

after serving 14 years on death row and spending 18 years of his life fighting the case, he continued to fight for justice, and he brought his case to the united states supreme court. he received a $40 million jury verdict, and in april, the united states supreme court overturned that, even though in this case, there were three prosecutors who have -- who were found to have intentionally withheld evidence that would have exonerated him. plus, and this is a great lesson for all of us, it was a prosecutor who was the hero. he stood up and came forward and told everybody what the other two prosecutors did. when he did that, his efforts were rebuked by the district attorney. as a result, he left his job. it tells you that there are

heroes everywhere. people are standing up for justice everywhere. we have to reach everyone everywhere every place in order to solve this problem. we do have a plaque to presented -- present to j.t > as a result of everything he has been through, but more importantly, to help him in the future -- present to j.t. as a result of everything he has been through, but more importantly, for everything he will do in the future. you can support the work he does with a reentry program for persons coming back from prison. so if we could present this to you. [applause]

moving forward, our work cannot stop here. i would like to have christine talk about what we are going to be doing moving forward. we have had meetings with district attorney george gascono about doing things differently. within the police chief, a new district attorney, we have that opportunity -- with a new police chief, a new district attorney, we have that opportunity. i would also like to acknowledge supervisor ross mirkarimi to come up here just for a moment and say hello, and let me have christine close the program. >> good afternoon, everybody. it was a pleasure to listen to the last panel this afternoon.

i am the chief of staff for mr. gascon, and i joined him when he moved over to the d.a.'s office. joining the office on his request, because i think we really have a unique perspective, having worked on the defense side and on policy issues, and i can attest that he is undertaking a wholehearted effort to really bring some reform to the criminal justice system on many fronts, this being one of them that we are evaluating. i hope that you as city and county residents will see in our work that we really take some efforts that will reform. anybody that has participated in the criminal justice system for any length of time knows that it does not work from whatever and will you are looking at it, so the question is how do we make it better? we hope to engage all of you in that. we are starting neighborhood courts, and a lot of efforts that we hope to engage the city and county in supporting us and

looking at ways to move away from the over incarceration of people and look at ways to reform their behavior. the efforts we have undertaken when george was appointed to the position -- jeff asked him to come to the public defender's office to have a question and answer session, which he did, and i attended with him. we are told that was the first time that had ever happened, and we reciprocated by asking jeff to meet with the district attorneys in our office. we have begun a dialogue that both sides think is very healthy. we have identified a number of issues that we think require further exploration, so we are creating working group's staff by the people from the d.a.'s office and the public defender's office to look at improving things like discovery, which is an important issue, making sure that we have reciprocal discovery and that it is transparent and complete. looking at workers from collaborative courts, looking at solutions besides incarceration,

dealing with mental health and behavioral health issues, rather than using the jails as a solution to that, and we are also working around juvenile issues to make sure we are doing all we can for those under the age of 18 in our community. those are the efforts we are undertaking. jeff and matt have been a fantastic partners in this. as far as we know, it is a new day in these efforts and really trying to work collaboratively and we hope to have all your support in doing that. [applause] >> of course, that is not to say that we are not going to fight it out in court because, of course, that is what we do. i would like to briefly introduce ross mirkarimi, who is a supervisor here in the city, and he has been a champion of many criminal justice issues, including prisoner reentry.

i also want to thank and acknowledge debra atherton. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: it is nice to see everybody. jeff is generous. i was not expecting to be up here. i know you have had a productive day. i think that the public defender's summit is something not to be missed and a template for the rest of california and probably the nation to follow. i am proud of our public defender. i am proud of our criminal justice partners because over the last four years, we have seen a great amount of innovation. jeff and i started the city's first reentry council, and it might be bewildering to you, but before we started it, believe it or not, those stakeholders in the criminal-justice system really very irregularly rarely would come together and talk

about ways that we might mitigate, reduce our recidivism rate. great progress has been made, but san francisco still needs to step up its game. i was delighted to hear the conversation that took place here, but no the statistic that for every four people that sanford's is the police department arrests and the da prosecutes, nearly three are repeat offenders -- for every four people that san francisco police department arrests and the da prosecutes -- the d.a. prosecutes. there is evidence to show that doing everything we can to try to divert some of his life from repeating their offense, but we will have to really vigorously enhance our approach. one way to do that obviously is the collaboration being fostered and demonstrated here today, but it is more than just today. it will have to be every single

day, or else california will continue to be building more prisons, and san francisco may not be far behind. thanks. [applause] >> once again, thanks for the flag. [laughter] have a good time. have a good evening. thank you very much. [applause]

>> i want to thank everyone for coming. we aren't trying to do a lot to restore the luster of the uptown historic district. in the past couple of years we have installed the store? . we have a landmark sidewalk

program that we want to institute. we also want to restore some of the historic advertising signs, which developed the neighborhood's character. in order to get this money, there is a challenge grant program. when we applied for this grant, the person in charge of the program was ultimately a cao named ed lee. so the mayor had to decide whether or not to fund this project, so i am glad that he did. we had support and additional financial support from the people that run the organization. jon dugan as well.

you can see that great historic pedestrian lighting, which we only have on taylor street and a small part of golden gate. i did not know this, but when he was a cao, ed lee got those installed on taylor street. the mayor also has a plan that would restore 135 historic street lights to the tenderloin. that is an incredibly important thing for them, from an aesthetic and from a safety point of view. we are also one of the darkest neighborhoods. this is important. you can see how nice those are. imagine how nice they would look through the neighborhood. i also want to introduce leroy looper who goes back to the 1980's with us in the tenderloin. nothing that any of us are doing would have started without

leroy's vision when he bought the cadillac. we always need to appreciate them for their contributions. so without further ado, i want to make -- introduced a person who made this possible, mayor ed lee. >> great podium. i am happy to be here. happy to celebrate these wonderful murals that have been restored. we have been working on this for many years. i just love the fact that he is leading this effort with so many of the other community people. this community challenge grant was an easy decision that we made. i see our acting city administrator. she is continuing that very good community-based approach,

working in close concert with the people from clean city, who are doing the sweeping around here, working with nonprofits as well. i want to thank the tenderloin development megacorporation. you are part of our partnership. as well, the tenderloin economic partnership. i want to celebrate these because it is part of our history, but we are renovating them and giving them a facelift. this is an historical part of this district and kids like to the history that we are still trying to make sure that people feel the vibrancy of this community. you have to see the other ones as well. the one that says original joe's -- john is here. there is also a coca-cola one. i want to see them put the old

phrase in their "the real thing." i missed that. we are also doing some restoration. it is all about making sure we pay attention to the uptown tenderloin historic district. we have done this for some years now. ever since the fire that occurred here -- unfortunately, there was a fire here a few years ago. my predecessor gavin newsom asked me to come down here to work with the arts community, come up with every idea that we could, to work with the office of economic development to please key dollars here. we are working with so many

organizations working our way up this great street, finding out that there was a lot of history to showcase. we wanted to make sure that we used our artistic ability, the ability to forge artistic programs, and that is why we invested in this foundation. they are taking over the old theater. now these murals. i want to thank the people who got our two artists here. their work is presented here, in this unveiling of these advertising murals. and we are going to do more of this. we want to do all of this in partnership with neighborhoods. that is what randy is all about. i loved working with him because he and everyone in this

neighborhood wants to take pride in where they live and work. we see kids growing up in the tenderloin. they need to know the history of this area. we also need to make sure that not only are they safe, but that they appreciate the history of this neighborhood. i want to thank everyone is level of cooperation here. we have a piano theater coming in. we have the underground for the clay and ceramics. that will represent the role that part plays in helping us for a revitalization to this neighborhood. we are doing that at central market as well. and we are trying to revitalize this whole street. this is ground zero for where arts and civic minded this come together with local government, to forge a ongoing partnerships

to make this revitalization their welcome and new. also, if you go around the corner here, you will see the newest restaurant around. they are investing in our neighborhood. a great restaurant has come in and they are going to start another trend of great food. you see the revitalization already happening. the inspiration comes from everybody working together and never abandoning our neighborhoods. we never want to do that. so thank you very much for being here. i appreciate everyone's cooperation and thier roles. [applause] >> our next speaker is john dugan. he is a legend. we love that he helped to get these merrill back of on the buildings. >> i know you have a busy schedule, mr. mayor, but before you leave, thank you for your

decision to keep this city ticking away that it is. i want to thank many of these people. you have been around here. thank you. i know it was not easy. but what a courageous decision. we are certainly behind you. randy chopped, what can i say about randy? we have gone back and forth over 30 years, but the mural restoration is just another wonderful step -- and it is a happy step. a few months ago we were here talking about police protection, but this is a happy step. something that the tenderloin residents, the retail community, and property owners, can rejoice in. as long as we continue to work together, this tenderloin is

going to get better and better. randy, again, thank you for what you did hear. >> carolyn from the mid market cbd is also here. there is a story about market and tenderloin, dark past, shared future. now we are going to have some fun hearing from the actual artist, susan cervantes. >> thank you, randy. thank you, everyone, for coming out. i want to thank the mayor for his passionate comments. for our part, we feel very honored to have had this opportunity to do some restoration in the tenderloin. we have a couple of other minerals, one on golden gate and one on the glide, for we have

contributed to neighborhood beautification. we love the fact that this is historica. it was amazing, when we started to do the research on the signs, looking at the walls, how much history there was. we took the one that were the most recent and restored those and even had to cover up some of the others. but it was amazing to see all of the layers. and when you look at the coca- cola sign, you can see that the railway school actually overlapped it, so we left it that way. layers of history. when we started to clean the wall, the crew that is responsible for the painting -- i was just sort of directing them in the process of

recreating them, making decisions about the color. but when you get up to the wall, we restore the actual color. when we were far away, we could not see what color it was until we clean its and then matched those callers. so that is the process of restoration. it is not just going up there and painting them any way that we want to. we really wanted to preserve the history of the signs, when they could work created back in the 1930, 1940's. we want to thank the people here who have put so much into the neighborhoods. like i said, i was not the one that painted them. i have some talented artists that did the work. it is a lot of scaffolding to go up and down.

i know that my son is here. come on up. and there weren't four artists. -- were four artists. one of them is actually in poland right now doing a community mural there. but we are all proud of the work and we hope that you appreciate the brightness and uplifting of the community. we really want to thank you very much. >> i will mention, people know that original joe's is moving to north beach. but as part of the sidewalk project, there will be a plaque in front of original joe's installed in september