News and Press Releases

Genetic evidence is widely viewed as ironclad. In ‘cold hit’ cases, however, the truth is often elusive. San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Kwixuan H. Maloof defended John Puckett in his trial for murder. Puckett insisted he didn’t kill the victim. According to the defense, although DNA at the crime scene happened to match his, it belonged to someone else. Read the...

San Francisco, CA – A 26-year-old San Francisco woman was acquitted twice by two separate juries. Tried twice over a one-month period, the woman had been charged by prosecutors with loitering with the intent to commit prostitution on June 8, 2007 and October 23, 2007 in San Francisco. Prosecutors argued that the woman had been seen by a vice officer...

By Jeff Adachi Published in The Recorder, Friday, April 18, 2008 Following the California Supreme Court decision that barred the public from police disciplinary proceedings, Copley Press v. Superior Court, 39 Cal.4th 1272 (2006), lobbyists for police and sheriffs organizations have worked to convince state legislators to introduce new laws that would further shield law enforcement from public accountability and...

AB 2377 would have made it more difficult for criminal defendants to access records of police misconduct that are material to their defense. Public Defender Jeff Adachi submitted a letter opposing AB 2377 to the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Mary Hayashi, and to members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Read Public Defender Adachi’s letter to Assemblymember Jose Solorio, Chair of the Public...

The San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents (CIP) Program evaluation, for the period of October 2006 through December 2007, was funded by the Zellerbach Family Foundation to assess CIP’s effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.