JURISPRUDENCE

The Supreme Court’s Right Flank Is Laying Groundwork To Dismantle Defendant Rights
SLATE, October 4, 2023 – Employing an unholy triad of disrespect for judicial precedent, originalism, and magical thinking, Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice Roberts are signaling in their dissents, majority opinions, and concurrences a willingness to overrule landmark Supreme Court decisions that established basic constitutional protections in our criminal legal system.

How Bay Area prosecutors are weaponizing California statutes to attack judicial independence
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, April 21, 2023 – In October 2022, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins directed her prosecutors to file CCP 170.6 disqualifications against Judge Anthony Kline to prohibit him from hearing all juvenile delinquency cases, commonly known as a “blanket” disqualification.

I used to audit law enforcement. Trust me, Oakland police are incapable of investigating their own
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, January 27, 2023 – Police have no incentive to hold their colleagues accountable; it is important to understand that this is not a case of “a few bad apples.” This is a case of a “bad orchard.”

Real justice reform requires new leadership at DA’s office
EAST BAY TIMES, April 26, 2022 – Sajid Khan is a candidate for Santa Clara County District Attorney [...] We reject the circular argument that only people who are already in charge are qualified managers. This rationale forecloses the very innovation and diversity that defines Silicon Valley at its best...

Cordell: Rejecting a new county jail
SAN JOSÉ SPOTLIGHT, January 18, 2022 – I urge the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to reject the County Executive Office’s recommendation to build a new maximum security jail and, instead, vote to create alternatives to incarceration.

In the aftermath of the 2015 tragic death of Michael Tyree, a jail inmate suffering from mental illness who was murdered by three corrections officers, I was asked to chair the County’s Blue Ribbon Commission, created to evaluate the county’s jail operations [...] More than six years later, many of our 100 recommendations have yet to be implemented...

Judges Keep Accepting Nonsensical Reasons to Exclude Black People From Juries. Here is what we can do about it.
SLATE | JURISPRUDENCE, November 16, 2021 – A panel of 12 jurors will have to decide if Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan acted in self-defense when they cornered Ahmaud Arbery with their trucks before shooting him and leaving him to bleed out in the street...

Judge Cordell on Case That Pushed Her to Retire: 'My Tenure on the Bench Was a Conflicted One'
PEOPLE, October 26, 2021 – There is no apprenticeship for a new judge. Judging is learned by doing; it is on-the-job training. One day you're a lawyer who may never have set foot in a courtroom, and the next day you are a judge in charge of a courtroom, making life-altering decisions. When, at the age of 32, I began my career as a trial judge, I was untrained, untutored and terrified...

Help people like Britney Spears by reforming conservatorship laws
LOS ANGELES TIMES, June 6, 2021 – “I didn’t know I could petition the conservatorship to be ended. I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that,” Britney Spears said to the judge...

Californians deserve a new type of sheriff in town
MERCURY NEWS, May 5, 2021 – Last month I participated in a news conference with state Sen. Scott Wiener and several criminal justice reform activists, in support of SB 271

California killed cash bail. Now it’s up to judges to determine a fair replacement
SACRAMENTO BEE, September 25, 2018 – The California Legislature through Senate Bill 10 achieved a major victory by eliminating a cash bail system that regularly jailed people who could not afford to buy their freedom. But...

Transparency in the Administration of Justice
MARKKULA CENTER FOR APPLIED ETHICS, October 22, 2015 – The events in Ferguson, Staten Island, Cleveland, and beyond have once again focused attention on our criminal justice system and on policing. At the core of the problems that these events have...

Guest opinion: Black men’s encounters with police suggest need for civilian oversight of department
THE ALMANAC, March 8, 2017 – The poignant stories of DeBraun Thomas, Jonathan Turner, and JT Faraji, black men featured in...

Do not recall Persky over Brock Turner-Stanford case
MERCURY NEWS, June 23, 2016 – Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Brock Turner, a Stanford swimmer, to six months in jail for the egregious sexual assault upon an unconscious young woman. As a result, the judge has been pilloried by...

Cordell: Protect innocent people from asset forfeiture loophole
MERCURY NEWS, June 2, 2016 – Police officers force their way into your home; they believe that you possess illegal drugs for sale. They arrest you, and they seize your computer, your cash , and your valuable coin...

LaDoris Cordell: Sheriff’s deputies, correctional officers need civilian oversight
MERCURY NEWS, September 8, 2015 – On Aug. 27, Michael Tyree, an inmate in the Santa Clara County Jail, was found dead in his cell. Three correctional officers Jereh Lubrin, Matthew Farris and Rafael Rodriguez have been...

LaDoris H. Cordell: San Jose PD records policy should be state law
MERCURY NEWS, June 1, 2015 – For years, residents of San Jose voiced concerns that Latino and black residents had encounters with police officers that differed greatly from the experiences of white residents...

Abolish criminal grand juries
SFGATE, December 12, 2015 – In our system of law, police and prosecutors have strong and close relationships. If prosecutors file charges against police officers, however, they alienate the police on whom they depend to...

Grand Juries Should Be Abolished
SLATE, December 9, 2014 – Grand juries originated in 12th-century England to prosecute criminals; in the 20th century, England abolished them. Other members of the former British Empire, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand...

Policing the Police
SFGATE, August 15, 2014 – In just the last two months, Michael Brown, 18, was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri; Ezell Ford, 25, was killed by a police officer in Los Angeles; Frank Alvarado, 39, was...

End death penalty, says judge
SFGATE, May 12, 2012 – “Moral leadership needed to end state’s death penalty” (Insight, April 29): After nearly 19 years presiding as a state court judge in Santa Clara County, I am certain that...

Baby, You Can’t Drive Your Car
SLATE, September 22, 2009 – Driving home from work after a long day at the courthouse, I was hit by a drunken driver. He destroyed my car and left me with bruises, a hairline fracture of the spine, and terrified about...

Being penny-wise and justice-foolish
SFGATE, February 8, 2012 – In the famous 1963 case of Gideon vs. Wainwright, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the state must provide lawyers for those charged with serious crimes who cannot afford...

The court will overturn Prop. 8
SFGATE, November 11, 2008 – Shameful is the only word to describe the vote on Proposition 8, which amended California’s Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. In the blink of an eye, marriage for same-sex couples has...