Bates: Charging someone with a crime is the greatest power the State’s Attorney has and it must be exercised with great discretion. My office will be selective and strategic at the initial charging stage at central booking. I plan to reinstitute felony screeners and conduct more preliminary hearings to weed out bad cases within 30 days instead of six to eight months.

Bates: As in any relationship, you must have trust and trust is earned. As a homicide prosecutor, my job wasn’t about trust, but the evidence and the law. I evaluated the evidence and studied the case brought to my office by the Department, and exercised my professional judgment about whether or not there was probable cause that a crime had occurred. Being an attorney for 23 years, it’s about building a case based on the evidence. There will be good and bad police officers, and as with any relationship, it must be based on trust.

Bates: The charging was rushed and the theory of the case was confusing. Many believe that Mr. Gray was injured on the street, but the State’s Attorney believed he was injured inside the police van. To prove this, the State’s Attorney granted outright immunity to too many different police officers involved in the incident – and as the case developed, realized that was probably a mistake. The two prosecutors assigned to handle the trial by State’s Attorney had never prosecuted a homicide in their career. The Freddie Gray trials were not the right time for them to get their start. The expert testimony was weak, and the State’s Attorney never put forth a proper expert on police use of force.

Bates: There is a long list of experienced prosecutors who have left the State’s Attorney’s Office and a number of them have expressed an interest in coming back under my administration. In addition, a number of attorneys at the state and federal level have expressed an interest in working with me. The State’s Attorney’s Office under my leadership will be a office where prosecutors will have discretion in handling their cases and will have some of the top lawyers and judges to host training sessions. It will be an office where the culture will be one of support, creativity, and teamwork.

Bates: Yes

Bates: My first week, my team will evaluate every case involving a violent repeat offender. I will select the ten best trial lawyers and they will each be assigned ten cases with the understanding that they’re going to trial and cannot plea. Once we have won the cases in trials and have held the violent offenders accountable, we will then be able to send a message that the State’s Attorney’s Office will hold repeat violent offenders accountable. We then can focus on community prosecution – to collaboratively work with the police and community and focus on violent repeat offenders.

Bates: As State’s Attorney, I will follow the lead the city of Chicago and release all raw data and statistics generated by my office related to its performance (which data remains unavailable under the current administration).

Bates: My office will use all the legal tools we have to protect the identity of witnesses. For instance, we will ask for protective orders. The community liaison will be the contact person between the prosecutor and the witness after a statement is provided. In addition, we will go to Annapolis to ask for more funding for safe housing for victims and witnesses.

Bates: I am the only candidate in this race that has seen the criminal justice system through the eyes of both the defendant and victim. I have 23 years of experience and I am the only candidate that has worked in every unit in the State’s Attorney’s Office– district, juvenile, circuit, and homicide as prosecutor. As an assistant state’s attorney, I never lost a murder trial. As a defense attorney, I had the opportunity to work at a law firm and also, started my own firm. I have effectively operated a successful law office and I have trained new attorneys to become successful. I have worked with the police and I have also sued the police. Throughout my career, I have formed relationships that are the key to making the system work to protect us from violence. In a nutshell, I bring leadership, experience, and results.