Debate Fact Check: What Were They Talking About, and What Was True?
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What Ms. Gabbard said:
“When you were in a position to make a difference and an impact in these people’s lives, you did not, and worse yet, in the case of those who are on death row, innocent people, you blocked evidence from being revealed that would have freed them until you were forced to do so.”
Ms. Gabbard is most likely referring to the case of Kevin Cooper, a black man on death row in California after being convicted by a jury for a 1983 quadruple murder. Ms. Harris, as attorney general, did not allow new advanced DNA testing in his case, denying Mr. Cooper’s request. After The Times wrote about the case, Ms. Harris told the Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that “I feel awful about this” and called on the state to allow for such testing.
While Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has ordered additional DNA testing in the case and a number of legal and judicial experts say that Mr. Cooper was wrongfully convicted, the advanced testing has not yet proved Mr. Cooper’s innocence and allowed him to leave death row.
What they’re talking about
Ms. Gabbard also criticized Ms. Harris’s prosecutorial record on marijuana convictions.
What Ms. Gabbard said:
“She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”
The exchange was another instance in which Ms. Harris has been forced to defend her record as California’s attorney general. In 2010, an estimated 1,000 drug cases were dropped in San Francisco because the lab was unable to test evidence, on top of 550 cases that had already been dismissed or dropped. Prosecutors at the time said they planned to file charges in 400 cases after the results were retested.
Ms. Harris also has a murky record on legalizing marijuana. Pressed in 2014 on her opponent’s call for the legalization of marijuana, Ms. Harris said “he is entitled to his opinion” with a laugh and did not offer a specific position. But in 2018, Ms. Harris signed on to her fellow senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act, which would legalize marijuana at the federal level.
Article source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/PoliticsNews/~3/Ajb0Gqqgjlg/us-usa-obamacare-idUSKBN14X1SK
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