Harris’ Career As Prosecutor Left Her Totally Unprepared for a Fair Fight
The results are in and Donald Trump has won a commanding victory in the 2024 presidential race. Pundits, pollsters, and wonks will be trying to explain why Vice President Kamala Harris did so poorly on Election Day for a while.
Some of their explanations will be better than others. But there is a clear, obvious, overall reason why Harris’ presidential bid went down in flames: her experience as a prosecutor left her ill-prepared to compete in a fair fight.
Harris spent 28 years of her professional life representing the government—first as a county prosecutor, then as San Francisco’s elected district attorney, and finally as California’s elected attorney general. In every one of these posts, Harris enjoyed all the unfair advantages that America’s judicial system confers onto the prosecution.
In criminal cases, she was free to pile excessive charges onto defendants in order to coerce plea deals and threaten them with a “trial penalty” if they insisted on their right to a trial by jury.
She could also knowingly prosecute innocent people, withhold evidence, rely on untrustworthy witnesses, and violate defendants’ civil rights, secure in the knowledge that “prosecutorial immunity” would shield her from any civil liability.
Throughout her career, Harris was unafraid of using these advantages.
As San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris used California’s “three strikes” law to pile sentencing enhancements on defendants accused of nonviolent crimes. She fought to keep cases out of the city’s drug court where defendants faced lighter sentencing and the potential for avoiding jail time.
Under Harris, San Francisco’s D.A. office failed to notify defense lawyers of the misconduct of its drug lab technician. When she was attorney general, Harris’ office defended dirty prosecutors who ran an unconstitutional jailhouse snitch program.
As attorney general, she was happy to tilt the scales of democracy in her favor as well.
In California, the attorney general is responsible for writing the titles and short summary language for ballot initiatives. Harris used this narrative-setting power to write biased language on a pension reform initiative she and her union
Article from Reason.com
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