Republican Candidates Already Pandering

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5520648.html



I'm not surprised. When you face a image crises the standard operating procedure calls for pandering. That is what the Republican DA candidates in Harris County are doing.


"....candidate and defense lawyer Jim Leitner said he would suspend for three months the right of prosecutors to block potential jurors because of their backgrounds or beliefs."

---I bet no defense lawyer has ever used race when considering picking their juries. Defense attorneys do the same damn thing. Attorneys go for jurors that they feel will be more favorable to their arguments and try to strike those who they think will disagree. For example. Let's say a man is being prosecuted for rape. The prosecutor will look for mostly women or anyone with a 'feminist' mentality. Defense attorneys will look for 'good ole boys' mentality. Let me use another example. Let us say we have a defense attorney who has a black client, and wants to play the race card in his defense. That defense attorney will try to strike as many white jurors as he can (I know many of you are gasping, but it does happen all the time). Pandering.


"Siegler said that, at the risk of riling police officers, she would make their crime reports more accessible to defense attorneys before each trial."

---Say what? All police officers know that their report will be read by a defense attorney eventually. Defense attorneys know this too. How is she planning on doing this? Having police officers call a defense attorney as well as DA intake to file charges? What damn difference does this make? She's pandering.



"Lykos said that as a felony court judge, she saw prosecutors eliminate potential jurors from a trial solely because of their race. "

---Back to my first point, I know she's seen defense attorneys do the same thing. If she says otherwise, she is lying or was asleep during voire dire. Pandering.



"Leitner, saying he was trained as a prosecutor in the late 1970s to try to keep minorities off juries..."

---Why not? Many people like to relive the past to justify their ignorance of the present.



"I think you would find, after you did that, that you are getting the same kind of jury verdicts (as before)," he said. " ... They can make the right decisions no matter what walk of life they come from."


Then the article says, "Leitner, who is white, guaranteed that his top assistant DA would come from a minority group.

---So, Leitner has already said he will discriminate in picking his top assistant DA. Of course this kind of discrimination is allowed by the status quo of double standards we are forced to abide by. He says juries can make the right decision "from all walks of life" however he feels a top assistant from the majority group cannot make the right decision. Again, pandering.



Now, why are they all pandering?
---"They spoke in a meeting with the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle."


Ding! Ding! Ding! That's why! Because it is this kind of nonsense the chronicle expects to hear. When these people hit the campaign trail, let's see if the answers remain consistent, or stay the same. Also, I would like to know if Democratic Candidate Bradford will have to meet with the chronicle editorial board and asked about his lack of trial experience (other than his own indictment for perjury-which was dismissed). Or will they ask about the fiascos that occurred while he was chief of HPD? I doubt it. I can save the chronicle the time and go ahead and write out his endorsement letter.