Campaign fact check: Here’s how Kamala Harris really prosecuted marijuana cases
www.mercurynews.com
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.
  • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3610·
    2 months ago

    Honest, I hope she prosecuted them all properly. It’s not a DA’s job to just let people off the hook when they legit break the law. If you want to change the law, you should probably become a Senator or something.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldOP
      34·
      2 months ago

      Regardless, it seems like she went fairly light on them for a prosecutor in the 00s. Since then we’ve had more progressive prosecutors but that wasn’t really a thing at that time.

    • TunaCowboy@lemmy.world
      241·
      2 months ago

      I get what you’re saying, and I’ll be voting for the democrat nominee regardless. However, a large part of a DA’s responsibility is to exercise discretion in which cases to prosecute and which sentences to recommend. From the article:

      Harris had wide latitude to decide which marijuana cases to prosecute and what sentences to seek

      • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
        115·
        2 months ago

        Certainly, and I would hope she was reasonable about it, particularly when it came to sentencing for people like first time offenders. Which cases to prosecute should just be the ones with strong evidence of guilt though. Not something like “I think marijuana laws are wrong so I won’t prosecute those.”

        • anonymouse2@sh.itjust.works
          10·
          2 months ago

          There are still laws against sodomy in many states. Those laws are backwards and antiquated, but they are still laws. I would expect every DA in the country to throw out a sodomy case involving two or more consenting adults not only because it’s a stupid law but because spending tax-payer money on such a case does nothing to protect the public good.

          • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
            23·
            2 months ago

            Generally I agree, though it depends a little bit. If the local populace strongly feels sodomy should be illegal, then they have the right to have that law. The DA should then enforce it.

            Fair point though.

            • anonymouse2@sh.itjust.works
              3·
              2 months ago

              I couldn’t disagree more with that. That’s the kind of thinking that results in the perpetuation of all kinds of racist and bigoted laws that strip people of their personal freedoms.

              • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
                31·
                2 months ago

                I agree, it is. I believe that our rights come from the people, though, and it is ultimately people that are responsible for choosing and upholding them. This is why we can amend our constitution.