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]

>> hi, i'm bart may. today we have a speaking event for you as we all the celebrate the placement of the world's largest self-anchored suspension bridge. without any further ado, i'd like to introduce the cal trans director, malcolm dockerty. >> thank you for coming out and helpling us celebrate the momentous occasion. it is my extreme pleasure to be able to introduce our first speaker today, and that is the honorable mayor, gene kwan. >> good morning.

well, we were expecting my friend ed lee. who knows if we see flashing sirens, that will probably be him. this is an amazing event for the bay area's economy. this bridge and this final lane of the final section represents so many things for us in the bay area. it represents an investment in the future of our area, tying oakland and san francisco. this is the kind of infrastructure work that i know president obama is trying to get in the big that will be coming up this week. about 10 kinds of this type of bridge are being built with federal dallas. the tax payers in the bay area have been willing to finance the retro fit of the bridge. this is a component that came from china. it's a real symbol of the global economy. and it is a complex project.

it shows how we're linked together. and thirdly, it's going to be this amazing opportunity for us regular self-defense when the bridge is finished, particularly here on the east side, to ride out here, our bikes, to walk out here across the bridge. to really tie us culturally as well as economically together in the bay area. i want to thank the workers and the cal trans crew that's been working so hard on this project for over a decade now. this has been difficult. i know the last mayor had a little bit of to say about the design. this has gone through three mayors. this is also when this comes back, it will be a critical part of what we're applying for federal funds. this is part of an overall

economic vision, and lastly, we all felt those tremors last week. we have to remember why we're here today. we live in earthquake country. there's so much work that we have to do to retro fit major bridges and roads in the bay area, and so that's why i'm particularly hopeful that we'll have a better outcome this week, next week in congress for the president's bill. we need to retro fit not only this bridge, but a lot of other major structures in the bay area. thank you to the engineering crew. thank you to the iron workers. thank you to international workers in china for building this last section. this is really a great day for the bay area 678. >> thank you, mayor. we could not let today pass without major representation from the bay area city, since

this is a significant link here between the bay cities. i'd like to introduce from the city of san francisco, mohammed nuru. >> good morning, and thank you for having us out here. i'd like to start by first of all expressing mayor lee's regret for not being able to come here. unfortunately, he got stuck at city hall. but with that said, we are very, very happy to be here for this event, and to join our partners. this celebration today marking installation of the 28th piece of the piece of bridge completes the driveway, bringing the rage into san francisco. as we heard from the mayor, it is a very, very important part of the project because it does connect san francisco.

as you know, of 100 million people use this bridge in a year to come to san francisco. but the construction of the bridge itself brings a lot of jobs to the bay area and we're very, very happy about that in support of all the work that our president is doing in washington to bring more of projects of this type. this bridge marks a huge improvement to connecting san francisco, and also connecting treasure island, which is the development that will be -- it's a development that's under way, and will hopefully be a place where everyone can also enjoy and ride their bicycles. next year we'll be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the bay area bridge. i want to remind everyone to look forward to that

celebration. it should be huge. i know there's a number of projects, some lighting of the bridge and all sorts of celebrations. with that said, i'm very happy to be here and san francisco is proud to be part of this project. thank you. >> thank you very much. i'd like to talk about the significance of what's been accomplished here today. it's another major milestone in the construction project that is replacing the san francisco oakland bay bridge. another major step forward in the completion. obviously, it's very important, and as was mentioned earlier about the number of motors that use this bridge, it's 280,000-plus motorists that use this every day and it's an important economic lifeline, and this extraordinary work done today will ensure that this lifeline will be safe for generations to come.

as we speak behind me, you can see that the final deck section is being listed into place. all 28 deck sessions will be in place and this is a massive step toward the completion of this engineering icon bridge. it closes the gap between the s.a.s. and the skyway, which we are standing on. it will give us a clearer picture of what the skyway will look like and the opening of the bridge late in 2013. we've been work at this. the department of transportation as well as the contractor and many workers and the subcontractors. we've been work on this for 21 months. on february 3 of 2010, the first deck section was put into place. and i want to thank all of cal tran's workers, whose efforts over that period of time has led to this point as well as the contractor and the subcontractors for all the continued great work. the engineers and construction

crews will be working night and day to livet all those 28 deck sections into place for this world class bridge and they deserve a lot of recognition and our sincere thank you. i'd also like to give a specific thank you in recognition to american bridge and floor enterprise, the main contractor on this project and to all the employees who have made this achievement possible, and we'll hear from the project manager of that endeavor a little bit later. i want to thank the oversight committee. we'll hear next from steve hemmingger. but i'd also like to thank mr. rinehart, who was not able to be here today. i want to thank the residents for their patience and support on this important project. i'll close with message to all the driving public.

we ask you to drive safely and move over when it's safe to do so. at this time, i'd like to introduce, as mentioned before, the executive drecktor of the bay area toll authority, >> good morning, everybody. we broke ground on this project, or broke water, i don't know what the right phrase is for a bridge, in the year 2000. today is a big step toward completion of the project. i think it's important to mark milestones, especially when a project lasts this long. but the only milestone that

really matters, as mayor kwan says, is when we can move traffic from that bridge on to this one. that seismic safety imperative has always been uppermost in our mind. and it continues to be with the reminders that we've seen with recent seismic activity just over the last few weeks. mayor kwan, i want to assure you we are going to open this bridge when you are still mayor. as for mayor lee, i guess we'll find out in a few weeks. we are going to open it as quickly as possible. we certainly hope by late 2013, or sooner if possible, and let me conclude, if i could, because we'd be introducing brian peterson next, the project manager, that i sure hope now that we've got all the steel in place, we can really put the pedal to the metal.

congratulations to all the workers who have gotten us this far and let's get the last stretch done now. thank you. >> before i introduce our last important speaker, i want to close my comments on a safety note and acknowledge other partners that are here, the california highway patrol. i do know that seward is here for the california highway patrol and i want to extend my appreciation to them. at this time, i would like to introduce our last speaker, the project manager for this great project. brian peterson.

>> good morning, everyone. it is a very exciting day. i appreciate the attendance we have here. it's a great day here. it's a beautiful day. we've got a lot of this evenings ahead of us here. today is one of many great days for the project and american bridge floor marks the erection of a last piece of bridge stack. and the final major piece of the fabricated steel for the project. today's piece will allow us to start the cable work in the months to come. so you'll see a dynamic change again in the bridge. we are proud of the fabrication that has been provided by dpmc and we thank them for all of their efforts. we're also very fortunate to have an experienced work force

here on the project that can accomplish great feats like you see going on behind us. without their skill, without their effort, this wouldn't be possible. milestones like today are only achieved through the spirit of cooperation, communication, and coordination. and for that, american bridge floor appreciates the team work of everybody that is here today and some special ones that couldn't be here as well. finally, i express our gratitude for the support from cal trans, the california transportation commission, and all of the elected officials that have supported this project, and like steve said, we look forward to continuing the work on this project to drive forward to a possible opening to traffic and seismic safety. the paramount that's left for the joint venture to complete. i thank everybody for attending

and i hope you enjoy the day. >> thank you all again for coming out to mark this momentous occasion. now i'm going to turn it over to bart for logistics. >> at this point, that concludes the speaking part of the day. and i know that some of you are going to remain on the deck with us and do your live -- we're going to go ahead and adjourn the speakers. brian, if you want to go ahead and allow them to take a peek at the segment, it looks like it's moving pretty well, actually.

>> thank you for joining us. i'm katherine sharp. we are very excited today to have a press release from the mayor and have him join us. this has been an amazing experience for those of us from the very beginning. we look forward to sharing that story with you. without further ado, mayor lee. >> thank you, katherine. thank you very much for being here. i wanted to join this great moment of celebration for fibrogen, which is more than a serial. that was what i first thought when i saw that name. i want to congratulate fibrogen