CANDIDATES SPAR IN D.A. DEBATE
Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove and former East Greenbush Town Justice Mary Pat Donnelly sparred in a debate Monday night
TROY, N.Y. >> Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove and former East Greenbush Town Justice Mary Pat Donnelly sparred in a debate Monday night at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Chapel and Cultural Center.
The forum was hosted by the League of Women Voters of Albany County and moderated by Mary Berry.
The two candidates traded barbs in a discussion centering around questions of experience and ethics.
“Since being elected Dis- trict Attorney four years ago, I certainly haven’t shied away from being in the courtroom, I’ve tried cases, some very difficult cases, homicide cases, arson cases, burglary cases, these are cases that I’ve personally indicted, personally handled in court,” said Abelove, a Republican , citing his vast experience.
“Last summer I tried and convicted the convicted parole, who murdered a good man, Bill Chamberlain, near his Wynantskill home. I’m currently prosecuting a quadruple homicide case from last Christmas time in the City of Troy because I believe so strongly in that case that I’ve taken it upon
myself to handle it personally. I developed managerial skills in the D.A.’s office with supervising people, 23 years in the Army supervising there, prosecuting cases also,” Abelove added.
Donnelly shared her reasons as to why she decided to challenge Abelove this year.
“Many people have said, why is it that you want to be the top prosecutor in Rensselaer County when you are not currently a prosecutor? That is exactly the reason that I believe I can fix what is broken in Rensselaer County,” said Donnelly, a Democrat, citing her outsider perspective. “You have an experienced prosecutor and you have the record that [Abelove] stands on.
“I don’t know where he got the 90 percent conviction rate from because I too looked at the DCJS data and there is an 89.5% conviction rate for drug felonies but overall felony conviction rate is around 68%, what you really need to know is that it was higher than that before he took office and has steadily declined during the last four years.”
Each candidate offered their respective answers on their ability to remain impartial as a prosecutor.
“I would certainly support measures that would take that out of the hands of a small District Attorney’s office like Rensselaer County and have an impartial individual or impartial body investigate that particular situation,” Donnelly said. “You cannot deny the working relationship and the personal relationships that are going to develop when you have police officers working hand in hand with prosecutors on a daily basis.”
“I think that by suggesting that prosecutors cannot be fair and impartial in carrying out their sworn duties we are feeding into a false notion that prosecutors are somehow biased towards the police,” Abelove countered. “I’ve prosecuted police officers in the course of my career, for DWI, I’ve prosecuted corrections officers for sex offense with an inmate, there’s nothing in my background or any good prosecutors background that would lead me to believe they could not be fair or impartial in assessing the evidence in a case, no matter who the suspect or the defendant is.”
The candidates also offered their thoughts on the issue of prosecutorial discretion.
“I think that prosecutorial discretion is a vital tool that prosecutors have. You’re electing a District Attorney that has to exercise good judgment, sound reason and to reflect the values of your community. We can’t do that without the discretion to exercise those values and to reflect the judgments that we believe are best for the community,” Abelove said.
“If wedidn’t have prosecu- torial discretion, laws could easily be written to just be formulaic to say if you do ‘x’ you’re getting ‘ y’, but that’s not how justice works, every defendant is different, every case is different, that’s why justice allows District Attorney’s to exercise a prosecutorial discretion to give somebody a break that they really needed or deserved or to treat somebody more harshly because they have an extensive criminal history and they’re not remorseful and the victim is irreparably harmed,” Abelove added.
Donnelly also expressed her opinion on prosecutorial discretion.
“Prosecutorial discretion is the heart and soul of why we’re here tonight because prosecutors are vested with that ability. The power that comes with this office and the ability to apply that prosecutorial discretion just because a police officer brings a charge to the D.A.’s office doesn’t mean it gets prosecuted,” Donnelly said.
“There are so many factors that are going to go into prosecutorial discretion. What I can tell you about my office if elected, is that my discretion will not be used in favor of my friends or against my enemies, it will be used uniformly in every single case,” Donnelly added.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6.