long time. i have no patience for bad official conduct. when i came to the sfpd, one of the first things we did was create an internal affairs unit with the criminal section. i recognize quickly the sometimes criminal misconduct internally was not being handled appropriately. i am not an apologist. when i tell you that there are people in positions of authority that do not abuse their authority, there are. when people in positions of authority abuse their authority, you have to make sure that you have the fortitude to make sure the right things occur. >> what do the polls say about an initiative repealing the death penalty? you kind of address that a little bit, but i think you address it in -- addressed it in that it was based on financing

and cost. the other question -- can you talk about what would happen logistically if all sentences were commuted to life without possibility of parole? >> the most recent poll i mentioned was on the question of the governor converting all the death sentences to life without parole and the potential cost savings of $1 billion, which shows 63% support. polls consistently show that when california voters are offered the choice between the death penalty and the option of life without possibility of parole, voters prefer the option of life without parole. a poll was done in 2009 by a professor at uc santa cruz where he asked about replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole with work and restitution, whether it is people -- with the people sentenced to life without parole would be required to work and some of the restitution would go to victims, and 2/3 of californians chose the option of life without parole and preferred that alternative. there is very strong support

among voters for replacing the death penalty. in terms of how it would work, the governor has absolute authority to change any criminal sentence he wants, and that includes a death sentence, which he has the power to convert with -- convert to life without possibility of parole. the governor would take that action, most cases would completely end with him. he could change those sentences himself. fork cases where the person has two prior convictions, they would go to the california supreme court for further review, and four justices on the california supreme court would need to approve the governor's action in that case. the california supreme court spends over 1/3 of their time working on death penalty cases, and they are under enormous pressure financially. the entire judicial system is. while we do not know what the supreme court would do, it would certainly be a huge relief to them to have these death penalty cases go away. after the death sentences had

been converted to life without parole, it would be a question of reclassifying the inmates and moving them into other high- security prisons across california. then, the question of where they were in the appellate process would have to be addressed by the courts. in fact, both people -- most people on death row are still waiting for attorneys to be appointed, so in most cases, their appeals have not even begun. not most, 45%. they do not have habeas counsel, and many do not even have their first appellate attorney. a lot of this cases would simply be treated as life without parole appeals. for the cases that are later in the states, courts would have to address whether the appeals continue or whether or not their sentence had been changed to life without parole simply resolve all the issues in their case and ended the appeals process.

>> we've got less than five minutes, so i want to invite the panelists each to say something in closing. maybe you could each take a minute, whoever would like to go first. >> we can go this way, so i will start. it is a great pleasure to be here. it is a wonderful crowd today, and this is a wonderful panel to be here with. each of these individuals have enormous life experience that is so much more important than anything i could say, and i have learned a lot being on this panel which east of them -- with each of them, and i appreciate them taking the time to share their views and being so honest and forthcoming. these are exactly the voices we need to end the death penalty in california and across the country, and i hope all of you will get involved and go to the website -- deathpenalty.org -- 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]

knows >> the executive director for saint anthony foundation, honored to welcome all of you to this hope-filled and ossetia's differ the foundation. for those of you may have been down in the dining room, today is a special day for all of us, especially our guests. in october of 1950, father alfred bodeker, a pastor just up the street, open the doors of saint and the 's dining room.

he saw it as a growing need on the sidewalks outside the church. everyday folks were lining up, searching for food. he felt that handing out a sandwich at the back door was not a dignified way to assess people, and it did not help to address some of the core problems that those folks were facing. so he was able to acquire at the corner of golden gate and jones, an old on a body repair shop, and he converted it into a dining room. from the start, he wanted it called a dining room. and everyone that came to the doors for a meal was to be called a guest. all of the volunteers, all of our staff throughout the last 61 years and knows that we greet everybody who comes through the doors like we would greet somebody coming into our home, with that same hospitality, that unconditional welcoming. so that not only are they getting a fine meal, but they're being reminded that their dignity is in tact. and that we're there to stand

with them through whatever hardships they are facing to start a new day. on that first day, father alfred thought he would serve about 150 meals. but 400 showed up to eat. they managed to have enough food for everyone. the dining room also became known as the miracle on jones street, because somehow there were always able to feed everybody who came. here we are today, everyone, 2012, 61 years later, 38 million meals later, and we are, today, serving our last meal in our original dining room. we are relocating for two years the tiberi dining room. on the same spot where st. anthony's was started, a new dining room is going to rise up. we're very excited about that. we're excited today to be launching both the start of that new building, lodging the public face of our capital campaign, and together, as a community,

bringing it all together so that st. anthony's is demonstrating its commitment for the next 60 plus years to serve the people of san francisco. one of the things we have always valued as partnerships. this is no different. not only are we building a larger dining room, about 43% larger, in fact, we are also bringing two of our other programs under the second floor of our building. our clothing program and our social work center, both on the second floor. it means that our guests have this integrated services right there, immediately where they need them. another partnership i am very proud of his partnership with mercy housing but they're going to be building 90 units of affordable senior housing on the upper floors. this corner of golden gate and jones is going to be transformed. there will be a 10-story building on the corner. it will bring food, counseling,

clothing, and housing. and i think that i can say that the mayor has always emphasized the need for partnerships. we can address the challenges we are facing as a city when we all pull together and we bring our best to cells and our best expertise to address the challenges we face. and caring and sharing is a theme i know the mayor has promoted throughout his efforts and continues to bring to his leadership in san francisco. certainly that is what st. anthony's exemplifies and what we do each day. it is my honor to introduce the leader of our fine city, mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you for your leadership. father, thank you very much. you represent really the best of what we do in san francisco. i am so glad to join supervisor scott wiener here today. our fire chief is here. members of our police chief and

the district captain is here. jane kim is here as well. a wonderful collaboration of people that have come together because of st. anthony's. not only are the meals important, but it really is the spirit and connections that people get when they come to a center like this. it is warm, friendly, people open themselves up for dialogue. and quality of life and then becomes something that is mutually talked about. i am thrilled to join here. i do not see it as anything negative today, just because it is colorado maybe the last meal served here for now, but it is won that excites me for the new chapter of st. anthony's. the new head of mercy housing is doug schumacher, who came as the head of our mayor's office of housing. i know he will be heading up a building this wonderful housing complex, along with the ground floor meal center that you have

here, while you take care temporarily of the serving of meals to people who really need them and want them and good, wholesome food that has always been at the heart of the expression of love and support at st. anthony has. i am also proud to share the stage was someone like larry baird. i have to say this, when you say the word of the name giants, there is only one giant in this city that we welcome. that is the san francisco giants. you know what i am talking about. [laughter] i will say this, i am really happy to associate st. anthony's and what the giants have done in partnership with them, because it is something i have always wanted to see, our businesses, our sports team to be able to make that strong connection as they have historically done. not only to the management come down, like larry himself, but

the owners and the players have been here serving meals. again, showing the love that this city has, the connections that we all have, because it is about connecting people in life, no matter what stage they are, what economic level they are at. i am -- i have always about the city for the 100%. everybody lives here, and what we do and what sherry does and went sherry announces a need and the father praise for people to come, people should listen. and they should, and they have to. and that is why we chose our director of hope, housing opportunities, partnerships, innovation, embracing and engaging our communities. bevon is here today to help serve these meals. he is supposed to be on vacation, gearing up for the very hard work he is going to

do. but i know his passion has already been shown for so long. so it is natural that he comes aboard and helps. these are the kinds of people that i want to surround myself with. the supervisors, with good administrators, people in the community, the business community, that all coverage on the important part of improving people's lives, opening up communication, giving the heart of san francisco out in the open and making sure that we take care of their buddies needs. with that, i am happy to be here. i am happy to be part of service to this. and sherry, congratulations on this stage of bringing forth for st. anthony's. i am excited to see a brand-new building, but also the same hearts to go into that have always been here. thank you very much. [applause] [applause]