On August 12, 2021, SF Weekly featured as its cover story – Jury-Mandering: San Francisco may soon pilot a new program aimed at balancing the scales of justice by increasing juror diveristy – with artwork by Olivia Wise. The in-depth article “Balancing the Scales of Justice” by Lily Sinkovitz discusses our Be the Jury pilot...Read More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 12, 2021 CONTACT: SF Public Defender’s Office – pubdef-mediarelations@sfgov.org – (628)249-7946 ** PRESS RELEASE** SF Jury Acquits Man of Misdemeanor Domestic Violence  Defense Presents Case of Self-Defense SAN FRANCISCO – This week, a jury acquitted a San Francisco man of misdemeanor domestic violence after Deputy Public Defender Cooper Findlay presented a...Read More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 8, 2021 CONTACT: SF Public Defender’s Office – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org – (628)249-7946 **PRESS RELEASE** SF Jury Acquits Graffiti Artist of Assault Charges Stemming from Vigilante Incident Public Defender presented case of self-defense SAN FRANCISCO – Today, a San Francisco jury acquitted Anthony Portillo, 29, of charges stemming from a 2017 incident in...Read More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 7, 2021 CONTACT: SF Public Defender’s Office – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org – (628)249-7946 **PRESS RELEASE** SF Jury Acquits Young Woman of Child Endangerment and Reckless Driving SAN FRANCISCO – Deputy Public Defender Latisha McCray won an acquittal for her 20-year-old client who was pulled over for speeding on the Bay Bridge last August....Read More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  June 30, 2021 MEDIA CONTACTS: Valerie Ibarra – SF Public Defender’s Office – (628) 249-7946 – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org; Anne Stuhldreher – SF Financial Justice Project – (415) 596-6138 – Anne.Stuhldreher@sfgov.org; Rachel Marshall – SF District Attorney’s Office – (415) 416-4468 – Rachel.Marshall@sfgov.org; Nannette Miranda – Assemblymember Ting’s Office – (415) 557-2312 – Nannette.Miranda@asm.ca.gov...Read More

KQED Arts writer Nastia Voynovskaya interviewed members of the Adachi Project as well as our SF Public Defender client, Paul Redd, whose release from prison after 44 years was one of the first films to be made. Under the art and editorial umbrella of DEFENDER-Vol.00, the Adachi Project has released three films – “Forty Four...Read More

The San Francisco Examiner published this Op Ed by San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju on June 17, 2021. “We spend exponentially more on the departments that arrest, confine, incarcerate, and monitor than we do on the one department that fights for the most marginalized.”Read More

For Immediate Release: June 11, 2021 Contact: SF Public Defender’s Office – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org (628)249-7946 **PRESS RELEASE** Ninth Circuit Rules in Favor of Immigrant Woman Escaping Torture in Mexico SAN FRANCISCO – In a groundbreaking decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today in favor of a San Francisco Public Defender client, Delfina Soto Soto,...Read More

In this excellent profile by Thomas Fuller of the New York Times, he interviews Deputy Public Defender Eric McBurney who is defending Steven Jenkins, the man accused of attacking two elderly Asian people at U.N. Plaza in San Francisco on March 17, 2021. Mr. McBurney, who was born in Taiwan and adopted as a teen...Read More

On May 19, 2021, testimony began in an evidentiary hearing against San Quentin State Prison and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for their mishandling of a disastrous transfer of COVID-19-infected persons from the California Institution for Men to San Quentin, resulting in a massive outbreak and 29 deaths in the summer of...Read More