coming tonight. as i said at the beginning, i am running because our system is broken, and we need a reformer to fix the system, and i have been working with the community for the last 20 years to do just that, and i think you have seen that reflected in my answers tonight. i am incredibly proud to have the endorsement of the sheriff here remember, 30 years ago, someone was running for sheriff who had never been in law enforcement who had never been a share, who had been a prisoner'' rights attorney. he was the right reformer at the right time, and now, he is widely regarded as the most effective share of in the country. he was the right reformer for that time. i am the right reformer for this time. we need serious overhaul of our criminal justice system, and i am incredibly proud to have his support as we move forward. i am also proud to have the support from all over the city pier the california police chiefs association, the former chief, heather fong, at the same

time i have support from leaders -- neighborhood groups from all over the city. democratic clubs are endorsing me. san francisco democratic party has endorsed me. the teachers' union has endorsed me and six of the seven school board members have endorsed me because of my focus on schools rather than investing in prisons. nobody else was able to put together this kind of incredibly broad support throughout the city. people have a hunger for reform, and people from all stripes, from all parts of the city are coalescing around this campaign because they know that i am the person who can lead the criminal justice reform that need. i would be honored to have your support. thank you very much. >> the san francisco district attorney is the chief law enforcement officer in the city and county of san francisco. 10 years, statistics show that

we have failed miserably, especially in serious and violent crime. we must reform the investigative unit. they need to start solving these crimes, and deterring crime. that is the two biggest goals in the criminal justice system. one, we deter criminal behavior. how do we do that? we must modernize the force. we must let serious and violent offenders know that they come to san francisco, they will get caught. we will apprehend them, and we have to do it and identify them accurately. then, when they are prosecuted in court, we need highly proficient lawyers. why are they at will? why are we just hiring anybody we want and then playing politics? they need to be highly proficient in the area of

criminal law. should be certified specialists by the state bar in the area of criminal law. once you do this and see the very effective force, we need to concentrate on effectiveness. and because we have a budget constraint, we have to be cost efficient. we start practicing modern law like in federal court. these reforms -- i cannot talk about in two minutes. i have been in the system for over 20 years. go do my website -- go to my website. i have an actual plan laid out there, and it works. if these are implemented, it will work, and i would ask for your support. thank you. >> when congresswoman jackie spear urged me to run for san francisco d.a., she said san francisco deserves ada that is a professional prosecutor, that this season and is in it for the duration.

that is what i bring you. we're definitely in challenging times. we have over 1000 unsolved murder cases and over 900 unsolved rape cases. we have allegations we are reading about that the problems are not being fixed at all. we have hundreds of cases dismissed due to allegations of police misconduct, and our appointed d.a. has supervised and trained the very police he is now being asked to investigate. our courtrooms are being closed because of a backlog of cases, which means that justice is being delayed, and the clock is running out on some of these cases with the statute of limitations. this is the one crown i can say that term to that knows what i am talking about. we have a state realigned happening where hundreds are being released back to our community, and yet, we are operating in silos. in order to meet these challenges, we need a d.a. that has a track record not just of accountability, not just of being in a courtroom, but has a

record of implementing innovation throughout our state and throughout the country. an independent veteran prosecutor with a track record that also brings the experience and expertise we need right now, not just about having the right ideas. it is about having the right kind of experience for this job. fortuitously, i have a dna background. fortuitously, child sex trafficking is an epidemic, and i am committed as a national leader in child sex trafficking to deal with these issues. i am very proud to have the endorsement of the queen's bench, to be supported by other lawyers in this community, not just law enforcement, but also our community as lawyers. it is a different culture we have. it is not a paramilitary organization we need to run. in order to lead eight army of trial lawyers, you need to walk a day in their shoes. >> i am going to stand up here

this is only my second meeting with the other candidates, but it is my opportunity to make a closing argument. i hope you can all hear me in the back. when i first got in the race, i have the prosecution experience and the law enforcement background and the same attitude as to the death penalty, based on my personal experience having been a prosecutor, i would never seek it, so we share the same progressive ideas. as i listen to them, i realize they are admitted to the bar but had never practiced law. mr. gascon has been a police officer. mr. onick is a professor appeared as far as i know, they have never taken the opportunity to go down to the courtroom to interact with the public

defenders, the defense attorneys. yes, one wants to hold on to the job he was appointed to, and one wants us to reward him with this job, although he has never been a trial attorney and has never practiced law. unfortunately, i have not gotten to know you that much, but i did appreciate your comment as it related to the position of the prosecutor's office and public defender's office. ms. bach, i think you are an excellent prosecutor, but you are in a different county. you have more conservative ideas than san franciscans do here i have represented people both as a prosecutor and defense attorney. my record speaks for itself. i have not been running since july 2010 or july of this year. i have only been running for a month. my poll numbers are great. my attitude is good. i am out there, fresh, energized, and i would like the bar association to vote because

you never get enough people to vote, so please vote and let the public know who is best qualified and best represents what the district attorney is all about. >> i want to thank the league and the bar for providing this opportunity. this has been a very professional environment, and i really appreciate it. i have over 30 years of experience in working directly with communities on the street and in their homes to make communities and cities safer appeared as police chief, homicide dropped nearly in half when i was here. when i became district attorney in january, i continue that trajectory by moving immediately to reduce the backlog in homicide. thanks to some of those efforts, today, we enjoy nearly 90% conviction rate in homicide, but i know from firsthand experience that making the city save is not just about making arrests and prosecutions. it is about gaining trust in the community and making their lives better. that is why i created

neighborhood courts that differ low-level offenders away from prison while entering the take responsibility for their crimes and their victims are made whole. we have neighborhood courts now it bayview and mission and other states will continue until we have their programs citywide. that is also why i have taken victim services directly into our community so victims such as the elderly and those who have suffered from domestic violence receive the services they need without having to travel to the hall of justice. that is also why i have bargained with the bayview ymca to help kids stay in school and earned their diplomas and why i am working with ninth graders to head off truancy and provide other possibilities for young kids. i am also proud to say that i have very significant endorsements, beginning with pamela harris, the former d.a., are of the entire pool of people and people she knew very well, came to support me and wholeheartedly support me in this endeavor.

i have the support of dianne feinstein, our senator appeared our former mayor and now a lieutenant governor gavin newsom. i have the support of the shares association, the police officers association, and

>> welcome, everybody. to the 2011 justice summit by the book. i'm so excited to be here. you know, we've been doing these summits now for seven years, but this by far is the most exciting summit. i cannot wait to hear the panelists that we have today. we're going to be delving in to some of the most critical issues affecting the criminal justice system at this time.

and we're going to talk about, what is justice and what it means. you know, plateo said, "i do not know what justice is, but i know what it is not." and that is very true when you think about it because it's something that we take for granted, that we believe in, that we hope for, but the reality is is that we don't understand and appreciate justice unless we are deprived of it. and in many cases the definition of justice is the correction of an injustice, and that's really the spisht that we're approaching today. we have three action-packed panels. our first panel celebrates the

50th anniversary of a novel that really defined american justice in the 1960's and that's "to kill a mockingbird." and many a lawyer was motivated by atticus finch in his closing argument in that case which in many ways represented the civil rights movement that was to come and it already begun. we have best-selling authors. we have a real-life atticus finch, tony serra, who is here and has motivated so many of us to do what we do. our second panel looks at abuse of power, abuse of power and how it happens and why it happens and most importantly what we can do and need to do to prevent it. whether it's a prosecutor or a

judge or a defender render ineffective assistance to counsel or a police officer violating constitutional rights. this is not something we can tolerate, yet it happens each and every day. and our panel is going to delve deep into the issues that we're seeing not only here in the bay area but throughout the country and throughout the world. our third panel after lunch will talk about the future of the death penalty and hopefully its demise. you might be surprised that we are having a conversation here in san francisco about the death penalty. as you know, our district attorney has indicated that he may seek the death penalty in appropriate cases in san francisco, and that has not been the case for the past decade. but he's coming today to talk

about his views. we also have a former warden at san quentin who surprised the last three executions, and she is now the head of death penalty focus which is an anti-death penalty group. we have somebody, though, who really symbolizes everything that's wrong with the death penalty. in 1983 he was arrested and within 120 days was convicted in two trials which resulted in the death penalty. he was sentenced to angola in louisiana, death row, where they were executing people left and right. he spent 14 years. he had nearly half a dozen

execution dates. and yet he survived and he's here today. and actually -- i know you are on the third panel. come on up. come on up. this is james "j.t." thompson. he came all the way from louisiana to be here today. [applause] one question, how did you survive? >> god. god. god. death row is a place that brings out the truest human being in you. it makes you realize you can't take nothing for granted. you need to love every moment of each day and praise and thank god for each moment you have out here. for the system to do what it

did to me -- i was the only child from my mother. i was a father too. the system didn't see none of that. it did not see me not having a criminal record. it's hard to accept. it's hard to keep on continuing to accept a prosecutor or somebody that wants to sentence swub to death with a system that's corrupt as ours. all right. [applause] >> i want to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors who have made the summit possible. the law firm of brown and furtel and my good friend, dave

young, thank you. the criminal trial lawyers association. we'll hear from their incoming president in a few minutes. and also stuart hanlon as well as the bar association of san francisco. so let's have a round of applause for our sponsors today . let's get down to it. so before we get started i want to introduce someone who's a wonderful leader in our community and that's the president of the bar association of san francisco. >> thank you. thank you, jeff, for inviting me on behalf of the bar association of san francisco. i'm priya sanger.

i'm president of the bar association of san francisco. basf, as we note the bar association to be called, has had a long relationship with the public defenders office. it is crucially important for administration of justice. and so is san francisco conflicts panels where administration, which the bar association has provided in partnership with public defenders. so in san francisco when a public defender has a conflict of interest, criminal defendants and minors are represented by private attorneys from a panel administered by the bar association of san francisco. maintaining this independent body of attorneys is critically important as a well-run public defenders office. we are each other's complement. we are the sum of the parts that makes whole the criminal departments working so well in san francisco.

in 2003 the superior court contracted with the bar association of san francisco indigent to have cost-saving oversight to the administration and billing associated with conflicts. so tron is the director of the courts administration and has been working with jeff since 2003 to make sure that indigent panels are effective and that they do all -- that we do all we can to prevent recidivism. so thank you, jeff, for allowing us to be here and co-sponsoring this event. thank you all for coming here. [applause] >> thank you. next i'd like to introduce, the incoming president of the criminal trial lawyers association of northern california, frank.

>> hello. i'm frank and president-elect of criminal trial lawyers association of northern california. ctla is a proud co-sponsor of the justice summit here today. i've been asked to say a few words about ctla to both inform and entertain you for about the next two minutes. it's a professional association of criminal defense lawyers in the bay area. our membership list includes about 400 lawyers and private investigators, expert witnesses and even some professors and law students. our members are -- how do i say this -- luminaries in the field. today, the justice conference honors a past ctla honoree, one of our own, tony serra. ctla has featured the likes of not only tony serra at a feature presenter at our programs but those that include jim bross that has who defends cases most of the time but was the special prosecutor in the cat wineberger case.

john was responsible for ollie north. chris argatis, who i don't think has prosecuted anyone but defends everyone. and other greats like patrick and nancy. our programs have historically been more a mix of social and educational gatherings. our history dates back to 1962. we had a judge's luncheon in 1962 and our list of ctla presidents goes back that far. i wish i had the time to list them all but i don't. we'll get that list on our ctla page soon. san francisco is lucky to have ctla to kick around. our shall i say, to have our ctla members to kick around. but seriously, i'm humbled by the ctla members who every day, every day defend their clients using the constitutions of the united states and california in support of great principles. every day our members show

courage in bay area courts, and we do ok in the big battles as well. who will ever forget the extraordinary accomplishments of john in defending our college, patrick, from a crazy federal prosecutor in nevada? that level of talent and that level of courage is unique, but every day criminal courts in the bay area shine because my colleagues from ctla are working there. recently ctla issued a public statement against the death penalty. ctla joins other groups and individuals here today in calling for permanent incarceration as california's alternative to the death penalty. this city and county has a great san francisco public defender and we want to express our thanks to jeff adachi for his support of ctla over the years and for his gratitude for being here today. thank you for your taxi and have a great conference -- thank you for your attention and have a great conference.

[applause] >> i also want to acknowledge the public defender, past-present president of the california lawyers association. thank you for being here. now, we have our 50th anniversary tribute to "to kill a mockingbird." how many of you have read the book? seen the movie? i think everybody has seen it. well, this tribute features not only a great clip from "to kill a mockingbird" but atticus finch himself played by julian lopez-morillas who is one of the finest actors in the bay area. so let's go back to memory lane and enjoy this performance. >> ladies and gentlemen, gregory peck.

>> never seems as fresh and wonderful, as good and evil as it does when seen through the eyes of a child. trying to capture that is remarkable and perhaps that is why one look and the last few years has been so warmly embraced by tens of millions of people. "to kill a mockingbird," winner of the pulitzer prize and just about every award a book can win and now happily "to kill a mockingbird" becomes a motion picture and its memorable characters become vividly alive. some people call him jane louise finch. but she insists on scout. and that's her brother, gym. just a boy until the day he learns there is evil in the world. and atticus finch, the father, whose devotion of justice places him and his children in

jeopardy. and party to the defense, john robinson. >> excuse me. >> what kind of man are you? you got children of your own. >> atticus finch. >> this ring that belonged to your mother. you want to tell us what really happened? >> i got nothing to say. do nothing about it. you coward!

>> gentlemen, i shall be brief but i would like to use the remaining time i have with you to remind you that this case is not a difficult one. it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant. to begin with, this case should never have come to trial. this case is as simple as black and white. the state has produced not one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime tom

robinson is charged with ever took place. it has relied instead on the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence is not only been called into serious question on cross-examination but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. the defendant is not guilty. but somebody in this courtroom is. i have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state, but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at risk which is what she has done in an effort to get rid of her guilt. i say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her . she has committed no crime. she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that

whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. she is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance but i cannot pity her. she is white. she understood full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking she persisted in breaking it. she persisted, and her subsequent behavior is something we have all known at one time or another. she tried to put the -- she did something every child has done. she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her, but in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband. she struck out as her victim of necessity. she muut