Kamala Harris
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kamala Devi Harris
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2004 |
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| Preceded by | Terence Hallinan |
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| Born | October 21, 1964 Oakland, California |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | University of California, Hastings College of the Law Howard University |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Kamala Devi Harris (born October 21, 1964, in Oakland, California) is the current District Attorney of San Francisco. She is the first female District Attorney to be elected in San Francisco, the first black person elected as District Attorney in California, and the first Indian American elected to the position in the United States. She was elected in December 2003 with over 56 percent of the votes in a run-off election against the two-term incumbent, Terence Hallinan. She was also cited by the New York Times to be among the seventeen most likely women to become the first female President of the United States.[1]
Harris attended the historically African American college, Howard University in Washington, D.C. and received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989. She is the daughter of an Indian American mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer specialist, who immigrated to the United States in 1960, and a Jamaican American father, Stanford University economics professor Donald Harris.
Harris served as Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, California from 1990 to 1998. She then became Managing Attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. In 2000, San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne recruited her to join the her office, where she was Chief of the Community and Neighborhood Division, which oversees civil code enforcement matters.
In 2004, The National Urban League honored Harris as a "Woman of Power" and she received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the National Black Prosecutors Association in 2005. The Los Angeles Daily Journal recognized Harris as one of the top 100 lawyers in California. Additionally, she has served on the boards of several community organizations.
In April 2004, when police officer Isaac Espinoza was gunned down in the Bayview district, Harris announced that she would not seek the death penalty for the man accused of his killing, a decision which triggered protests from police officers and many citizens. Some were supportive of the decision in a community where capital punishment is opposed. Harris had made a campaign promise that she would not seek the death penalty if elected. Attorney General Bill Lockyer even threatened to intervene on behalf of the State of California to take the case out of Harris' jurisdiction. In the end, he ruled that Harris had acted within her legal authority. This stand is again being tested in the case of Erwin Ramos, who allegedly murdered a family in a case of road rage. [2]
Ms Harris has also come under fire for a drug-diversion program ("Back on Track") which accepted illegal alien felons for job-training when such persons could not legally hold jobs. This came to light when one program client, Alexander Izaguirre, allegedly grabbed a woman's purse then attempted to run her over in the process of his getaway.[2]
Harris ran unopposed for re-election in 2007. She has received acclaim from some for increasing conviction rates over previous DA, Terrence Hallinan (whose conviction rate was 52% versus the 83% state-wide average) and the overall professionalism of the office, but has been criticized for selectively prosecuting cases to bolster the conviction rate, which now stands at about 67%. Harris has also faced criticism in the face of continuing poor relations with police and rising violent crime rates. [3]
Harris's office prosecuted Eric Hunt for an assault on Elie Wiesel, based on the latter's notoriety as an author of Holocaust-related literature. She commented, "Crimes motivated by hate are among the most reprehensible of offenses....This defendant has been made to answer for an unwarranted and biased attack on a man who has dedicated his life to peace."[4]
Harris is a candidate for Attorney General of California in 2010.
[edit] References
- ^ Zernike, Kate (2008-05-18). "She Just Might Be President Someday". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18zernike.html.
- ^ a b [1] LA Times, San Francisco D.A.'s program trained illegal immigrants for jobs they couldn't legally hold
- ^ Trials and tribulations of Kamala Harris, D.A.
- ^ sfgate.com, SF jury convicts man of 1 felony in Wiesel case
