Will you use your position and power to advocate for legislation to encourage participation in rehabilitation programs and model behavior in prison through increased availability of rehabilitation credit to allow early prison release?

Candidate Response: Yes

Last year, teens were charged as if they were adults 110 times in the 6th Circuit, mostly at the sole discretion of the state attorney's office. Judges only have the ability to weigh in if the state attorney requests they waive jurisdiction over the case. Do you commit to requesting the juvenile court judge waive youth to adult court if you deem a case so egregious that it requires adult criminal sanctions?

Candidate Response: Yes

Will you stop prioritizing outdated War on Drugs laws that impose drastically increased punishments, committing individuals to be warehoused in overcrowded and outdated facilities, for lower-level drug offenses?

Candidate Response: Yes

By your second year in office will you track, analyze and publish data on prosecuting decisions, recommendations, and plea offers and negotiations to identify racial disparities?

Candidate Response: Yes

Our elected officials are oftentimes the most able/empowered to address racial discrimination in our criminal justice system. How will you attempt to address this issue?

Candidate Response:

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires individualized sentencing: no two crimes are punished the same because no two people (who committed the crimes) are exactly alike. I intend to consider the individual when considering the appropriate sentence, which includes considering the individual's race, background, upbringing, access to opportunity, over-policing, etc. This "I don't see color" trope that is being perpetuated by the current regime is only serving to perpetuate their racist policies. I believe we have to act with intention to correct the dramatic racial imbalance in our current system. Florida's population is only approximately 17% Black, yet Black people make up nearly half our prison population. If we don't acknowledge that fact and address it, it will never change.

Further, as addressed above, I intend to measure racial parity at every angle where prosecutorial discretion is afforded: charging decision, sentencing recommendation, diversion eligibility, juvenile direct file, capital punishment, etc. That data will be publicly available on a dashboard on my website. Currently, there is great disparity at all of the angles mentioned. I pledge that I will measure the data every 6 months and the disparity will decrease until it is nonexistent under my leadership. I intend to form a Civil Rights Unit to ensure that my office is not violating the Civil Rights of the defendants we are prosecuting.

Will you adopt a policy to recommend accused individuals be released on recognizance for property and drug misdemeanor offenses and technical violations of probation?

Candidate Response: Yes

Will you advocate against the use of invasive predictive policing tactics, like the program in Pasco County, that uses computer programs to create a list of individuals for police to target and monitor because the program determined that the individuals pose a high risk for committing a crime?

Candidate Response: Yes

How would you use the power of this position to check the reach of this program and protect the rights of the residents of the 6th circuit?

Candidate Response:

As I was supervising both offices in Pasco County for the Office of the Public Defender prior to my resignation, I am already a member of the PASCO coalition created to shine light on and hopefully end the Pasco Sheriff's predictive policing program. I will continue to use my platform to educate the community about the illegality of the program, as well as the harm that it is perpetuating.

I spoke with some of the leadership at the State Attorney's Office at the end of 2020 about the program, after I met with Sheriff Nocco. The Sheriff told me that, in part, the program was designed to prevent future school shootings. I encouraged the State Attorney's Office to speak to him about amending or ending the program because 1) if the intention is truly to prevent future school shootings, the program is not serving that function, and 2) if the Sheriff actually arrests anyone as a result of the program, it is unlikely that the State would be able to successfully prosecute because of the constitutional violations being committed in the course of the arrest. As the State Attorney, I certainly intend to communicate these things to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Will you work to ensure people who are not a threat to public safety are not pulled into the criminal legal system by prioritizing violent crime and actual public safety concerns, over offenses associated with poverty, health and lifestyle? (De-prioritizing offenses such as failure to pay fines, loitering, trespassing, sex work, and low-level shoplifting)

Candidate Response: Yes

Will you de-prioritize the prosecution of marijuana paraphernalia offenses and marijuana possession offenses with less than 20 grams?

Candidate Response: Yes

Will you deprioritize prosecution of driving with suspended license charges, when the individual is not pulled over for dangerous driving or violating traffic laws?

Candidate Response: Yes

Will you encourage law-enforcement to avoid arresting an individual, instead giving them a notice to appear later in court, if they are pulled over solely for driving with suspended license and are not driving dangerously or violating traffic laws?

Candidate Response: Yes

Do you commit to conducting independent investigations of law enforcement if they are accused of misconduct?

Candidate Response: Yes

What is your plan to tackle police brutality, misconduct and unjust policing in Black and Brown communities?

Candidate Response:

As mentioned previously, I intend to form a Civil Rights Unit to ensure that we are not violating the Civil Rights of the defendants we are prosecuting. The Unit will be under my leadership, but will operate autonomously from the rest of the State Attorney's Office. The Unit will have a specialized aspect to investigate law enforcement specifically. My office will also provide a "Brady List" of officers known to have committed perjury, as well as those with public complaints and use-of-force reports, etc.

Will you develop, implement, and/or continue updating a “Do Not Call” or “Brady” witness list, and require all prosecutors in your office to reject new cases and search warrant requests from police officers with documented histories of dishonesty, racism, or bias?

Candidate Response: Yes

Will you commit to ensure that individuals with felony convictions who, in good faith, register to vote without willfully submitting false information are not prosecuted?

Candidate Response: Yes

Is there anything else you’d like to add regarding your positions and views on civil-rights and civil-liberties issues in Florida?

Candidate Response:

I am a career public defender. I do think my record speaks for itself. I have walked the walk for the last 15 years as an attorney, in the trenches, fighting daily for racial justice and equality. When I say I am going to do something, my pledge carries great weight.