Despite the substantial number of convictions, many of the people who were arrested for marijuana during Harris’ tenure were never locked up or never even charged with a crime, according to attorneys who worked on both sides of the courtroom.
A total of 1,974 people were sent to state prisons for marijuana-related offenses during Harris’s 2011-2016 tenure as the Golden State’s lead prosecutor, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Harris is now on board with Biden’s criminal justice plan that seeks to “end all incarceration for drug use alone.”
Those numbers don’t cover people sentenced to time in county jail. The district attorney’s office, superior court, sheriff’s office and attorney general’s office said they didn’t have or couldn’t release more specific data about marijuana sentencing during Harris’ tenure.
“Kamala Harris and I disagreed on a lot of criminal justice issues, but I have to admit, she was probably the most progressive prosecutor in the state at the time when it came to marijuana,” Solis said.
Harris oversaw more than 1,900 marijuana convictions in San Francisco, previously unreported records from the DA’s office show. Her prosecutors appear to have convicted people on marijuana charges at a higher rate than under her predecessor, based on data about marijuana arrests in the city.
During the last presidential debate in July, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard blasted Harris over marijuana convictions, saying she “put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.” Gabbard was misleadingly citing figures for all of California while Harris was attorney general — even though the vast majority of marijuana cases in the state are prosecuted by independently elected county district attorneys.
San Francisco arrest data compiled by the Attorney General’s office suggests that 24 percent of marijuana arrests led to marijuana convictions under Harris, compared with 18 percent of arrests under Hallinan.
Over Harris’ seven years as top prosecutor, her attorneys won 1,956 misdemeanor and felony convictions for marijuana possession, cultivation, or sale, according to data from the DA’s office. That includes people who were convicted of marijuana offenses and more serious crimes at the same time.
As San Francisco DA from 2004 through 2010, however, Harris had wide latitude to decide which marijuana cases to prosecute and what sentences to seek in the city.
presidential campaign at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, Calif. on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks at the AARP Presidential Forum at the Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf, Iowa on Tuesday, July 16, 2019. (Olivia Sun/The Des Moines Register via AP)
The 1,500 figure appears to come from a 2019 article by the Washington Free Beacon -- a conservative publication -- entitled “Kamala Harris Packed California Prisons With Pot Peddlers.”
According to CDCR data, in December 2010, shortly before Harris took office, 29 percent of male inmates were black. In December 2017, after she left, this figure had dipped to 28.5 percent.
The report said Harris refused to allow new DNA testing when she was attorney general that it suggested could have proved Cooper’s innocence.
The Facebook post also claims Harris withheld evidence in the cases of two Black men on death row and released that evidence only after they had been executed. This claim also appears to come from Gabbard’s remarks during her 2019 Democratic presidential debate with Harris.
This is confirmed by CDCR data obtained by AFP -- which relates to all inmates, not just black men.
Harris — who made history Tuesday as presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s pick for vice president — has long faced criticism over her prosecutorial record, with skeptics saying she skewed in favor of police and was too slow, and even sometimes mum, on criminal justice reform. As California’s attorney general from 2011 ...
One of Harris’ worst scandals came in 2010 when a technician was caught skimming cocaine from a crime lab and mishandling evidence.
The case got pitched to the Ninth District Court of Appeals, with Harris’ prosecutors fighting against tossing Gage’s conviction on a technicality — that he had failed to raise the legal issue in a lower court.
Inside Kamala Harris’ polarizing record as a prosecutor. She may tout herself as a “progressive prosecutor,” but Kamala Harris’ record as a career California prosecutor suggests otherwise. Harris — who made history Tuesday as presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s pick for vice president — has long faced criticism ...
Harris also opposed a state initiative to soften minimum mandatory sentences — even though the criminal justice reform plan she rolled out while running for president called for their end.
In 2015, Harris required body cameras for California Department of Justice agents but didn’t support legislation mandating them for all police officers.
A judge later found that Harris’ prosecutor failed to turn over exculpatory evidence — including that the stepdaughter had repeatedly lied to law enforcement and that her mother described her as a “pathological liar.”.
127,000 Blacks, Hispanics Incarcerated When Harris Was Calif. AG. More ways to share... At least 127,000 blacks and Hispanics were sent to prison in California during the time Kamala Harris served as the state’s attorney general, The Washington Free Beacon is reporting. Harris, now serving in the U.S. Senate, is currently running for ...
Harris, now serving in the U.S. Senate, is currently running for the Democratic nomination for president. The Free Beacon, in data obtained from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said at least 44,172 black offenders and 83,370 Hispanic offenders were sent to California prisons between n 2011 and 2016.
Harris was California’s attorney general between 2011 to 2017 before she was elected as the state’s junior senator in 2016. During her time as a California prosecutor — she was also San Francisco district attorney between 2004 and 2011 — she was associated with opposing cannabis and for good reason not hide an opposition to cannabis.
She notably blasted U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a 2017 speech at the Center for American Progress, criticizing Sessions for pursuing draconian prohibitionist policies.
When she sought re-election in 2014, Harris ran against GOP candidate and strong cannabis advocate Ron Gold. A local reporter asked Harris about Gold’s views on legalizing adult-use marijuana in California. She responded by laughing in his face, and saying Gold is “entitled to his opinion.”.
During her presidential primary bid, Harris released a criminal justice reform plan that made her cannabis views explicitly clear. writing, “ [I]t is past time to end the failed war on drugs, and it begins with legalizing marijuana. ”. RELATED: Senate Republicans Really Don’t Want SAFE Marijuana Banking, Or So They Say.
Post-presidential views. Harris hasn’t let Gabbard’s comments reverse her cannabis policies. Before Biden selected her as his running mate, Harris signed onto a letter by fellow senators imploring Congress to allow cannabis small businesses to receive coronavirus-related funds.