Week 110

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Big things happening this week

#WeekInJustice: Week 110

Time seems to fly at the speed of light here at the People’s Office, and this week was no different.  Among many highlights:

  • The Land Use Unit successfully defended the County in a case where Pima County families were at risk of losing their access to utilities.
  • The Health Law Unit won in the Court of Appeals where court-ordered treatment was upheld in a case where fire setting had been occurring in a neighborhood due to mental illness.
    • The second Clements’ homicide trial is underway and is expected to last three to four weeks, and on that point:

I assisted Vicki Otto in what is now the twice-yearly Homicide Panel training. 

As we’ve discussed here before, the Homicide Panel is a gathering of every Bureau Supervisor, our Chief of Detectives, the Criminal Chief, Chief Deputy, and me.  Due to the backlog of 144 cases going back to 2017, we have been meeting every Monday to try to work through as many as five cases at a time to bring closure to the most difficult of cases.  

To modernize the Panel to meet core objectives of removing race and ethnicity from the presentations, we no longer use mugshots and sanitize the presentations of details that reveal race or ethnicity (with the obvious exception of identity cases of course.) 

The improvements are working.  Grieving families are relieved to know that subconscious biases do not affect our analysis.  They have told us this through veils of tears.  Justice is uncomfortable, change is hard, trauma permeates our work, and it is all completely worth it.

To be continued,

Laura

Laura Conover

Laura Conover

Pima County Attorney

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Shawndrea Thomas | 520.724.5571
Tony Gallego | 520.724.4170

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