News and Press Releases

by Jeff Adachi Printed in The Recorder, September 2005. 60 years ago, a black maid named Lena Baker was tried for capital murder in Georgia. She was charged with shooting a white man who had kidnapped her and threatened her with a metal bar. Her trial, presided over by a white judge and 12 white male jurors, lasted less than four...

CBS 5 CrimeWatch  (BCN) SAN FRANCISCO – A 20-year-old Daly City man who spent the last 19 months in county jail on murder charges was set free Tuesday after a San Francisco jury found him not guilty, Deputy Public Defender Mark Jacobs said Wednesday. Read the rest of this story. Read the press release.

San Francisco, CA – A 20-year-old man charged with first-degree murder in a fatal stabbing that occurred during a street brawl was found not guilty yesterday after a four-week trial. The stabbing occurred during a November 2005 melee that erupted in front of a house party in the Oceanview district of San Francisco. The victim had come to the defense...

by Eliza Strickland SF Weekly It’s expensive and time-consuming, but a court can help cure the hard-core homeless problem in San Francisco. Read the rest of this story.

by Jeff Adachi SF Chronicle San Francisco has begun to employ a controversial crime-fighting tool known as civil gang injunctions. Injunctions bar persons identified as gang members by law enforcement from engaging in restricted activities in specified areas. In light of the violence that the city is experiencing, proponents argue that these restrictions on civil liberties are reasonable. But one...