News and Press Releases

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, who is a survivor of...

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 by a family in the...

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 2020. The cases come to...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 27, 2021  MEDIA CONTACTS:  San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, (628) 249-7946, Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org Sean Lai McMahon, Pangea Legal Services, (415) 471-0754 **PRESS BULLETIN** UPDATE: Federal Judge Grants Temporary Reprieve – Stops Deportation of Willian SAN FRANCISCO – Today, Federal District Court Judge Charles Breyer extended an emergency temporary restraining order, halting Willian’s deportation until the Court can...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 26, 2021  MEDIA CONTACTS:  San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, (628) 249-7946, Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org Sean Lai McMahon, Pangea Legal Services, (415) 471-0754 **PRESS RELEASE**  SF Public Defender and Pangea Legal Services File Emergency Motion to Stop Deportation of a Young Father Who Faces Extreme Danger in El Salvador  SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, attorneys from the San Francisco Public...