Thread by @JewhadiTM

'Clear causal link': Lawyers accuse Kamala Harris of defying Supreme Court by hiding evidence from defense attorneys washex.am/2LuWkUM

While district attorney for San Francisco, @SenKamalaHarris withheld evidence that could have exonerated defendants on multiple occasions, in violation of a key due process ruling by the Supreme Court.

Between 2004 and 2010, Harris’s office failed to inform defense attorneys about criminal and professional misconduct records that raised questions about the credibility of government witnesses.

The lapses led to the dismissal of nearly 1,000 cases and a scathing 2010 ruling by a Superior Court judge that accused Harris’ office of breaching due process rights.

Legal scholars say that Harris’ office appeared to have violated the Supreme Court’s 1963 Brady v. Maryland decision. The ruling held that prosecutors must turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense.

“The reasons for failure to disclose exculpatory evidence range from bad faith to inexperience to excessive caseloads to a tunnel vision to get the ‘guilty defendant’ at all costs to rank politics, as we see in Kamala Harris’ case,” he said.

The District Attorney failed to disclose information that clearly should have been disclosed,” wrote Massullo.

When the judge asked the district attorney’s office for its policy on handling Brady disclosures, she was told the DA had no such system in place.

“Failure to implement any type of procedure is a violation of [Supreme Court rulings] and California’s statutory discovery obligations in criminal cases,” wrote the judge.

The controversy unearthed other cases where Harris’ office had withheld important information on government witnesses.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Harris’ office had compiled a list of over 100 law enforcement officials with criminal or misconduct issues but objected to sharing this information with defense attorneys without a court order.

Harris’ office was informed of other inadequacies at the police crime lab that it declined to make public. In 2007, Harris hired veteran forensics expert Rockne Harmon as a DNA consultant, paying him $140,000, according to a copy of the contract.

As part of his work, Harmon wrote a lengthy memo to top officials in the district attorney’s office that raised concerns about the reliability of the crime lab’s DNA testing unit in April 2010, according to San Francisco Weekly.

After the Madden scandal broke, Harris insisted she never saw the memo. Her office also declined to make the document public. Harmon called for the DA to release the memo, saying it was important to understand the scope of the problems at the crime lab.

“I'm not pleased that the full story — the full, true story — is still not out there,” Harmon said. “It's just something I'm not used to seeing as a prosecutor.” The memo has still not been released, despite efforts from defense attorneys to subpoena the document.

Harris' campaign did not respond to a request for comment.