League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA June 3, 2014 Election
	Matthew S. Harris Answers Questions Candidate for Judge - Superior Court; County of Santa Clara; Office 24

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. As a judge, you may be called on to impose sentences for crimes ranging from misdemeanors to homicide. While there are sentencing parameters and guidelines, you will have latitude. What factors and principles/values will affect your decisions?

A Judge should seek to impose a sentence that is just, based on all the facts and circumstances surrounding the crime. Many of these factors have been formalized and incorporated into the Penal Code as matters that the court must or must not take into consideration. These considerations are usually described as aggravating and mitigating factors, and function as formal rules for examining whether this robbery, for example, is worse than other robberies. Typical factors include victim impact, severity of injury or dollar amount, prior criminal history, whether a weapon was used and the likelihood of the defendant committing a new crime in the future, as well as other factors unique to each case.

2. Please describe your experience in civil and criminal cases.

In addition to being the candidate most experienced in criminal law, my extensive work in civil litigation with a large law firm, as a Consumer Protection and Asset Forfeiture Prosecutor and as a federal prosecutor set me apart from the other candidates and make me the choice to work in most of the court's non-criminal divisions, where cases follow the more formal procedural requirements of the Code of Civil Procedure and are usually based on written submissions.

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame Law School, I went to work for a top California law firm as a civil litigation associate, where I received an education in the basic skills that civil trial lawyers need to master, including witness preparation, conducting depositions, discovery, arbitrations, and settlement negotiations and preparing matters for trial.

Later as a deputy on the Consumer Protection Unit, I spent four years investigating and bringing predominately civil cases against businesses engaged in unlawful business practices and deceptive advertising. My present assignment in Asset Forfeiture is a full civil caseload.

I am the only prosecutor in this race. In 1991, I joined the District Attorney's Office. That same year, I was a co-recipient of the Robert L. Webb Award for Trial Advocacy in Misdemeanor cases. For over 22 years, I served on most of the DA's major felony trial teams and I have tried to a jury many cases including homicides, sexual assaults, robberies, kidnapping and the full range of gang crimes. I was named County Employee of the Month by the Board of Supervisors for my work leading to a conviction by jury of a paroled rapist for capital homicide.

Unlike many prosecutors that never leave the "blood and guts" cases, I have also served on the Major Fraud Team where I prosecuted white collar criminal cases such as embezzlement, forgery and commercial bribery. For three years, I was honored to be cross-designated as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting federal criminal cases in district court, including trafficking in counterfeit software, asset forfeiture, money laundering, wire fraud, and felon with a gun, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Neighborhood, a special program targeting gun crimes.

3. Would you propose any changes to assure that there is no appearance of bias in the courtroom including, but not limited to, bias based on disability, gender identity, age, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation?

A Judge has to constantly evaluate the context of things happening in the courtroom;(1.)the parties before the court are advocates and are necessarily biased in favor of their own interests,(2.)some may try to take advantage of what they think are vulnerabilities and/or the prejudices of others. To ensure fairness, the Evidence and Penal Codes allow for support persons, discretion in the manner and order of witness examinations and the limitation of evidence to only relevant matters and only those in which the probative value significantly exceeds inherent prejudice. By applying these rules, the court can significantly prevent bias in the proceedings.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Please answer each question in no more than 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 4, 2014 15:19
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