Politics, family and justice collide

Mayor London Breed picked the right time and the right governor to ask for clemency for her imprisoned brother. The San Francisco mayor said the attorney for brother Napoleon Brown suggested that “Jerry Brown would probably be more open” to the request because it was his last year in office.

After all, at 80, Gov. Jerry Brown has run his last campaign. His successor, fellow Democrat Gavin Newsom, could be looking down the road at how the commutation of a sentence in a crime that cost the life of a 25-year-old woman might be exploited by a future opponent.

But the case for applying now goes deeper than that.

Brown has gone where few politicians dare to venture in taking a chance — both politically and in terms of public safety — in approving pardons and sentence reductions. His record in the past eight years distinguishes him from every other California governor in modern history, including the young Jerry Brown who served from 1975 to 1983.

In his first stint as governor, Brown issued 400 pardons and just one commutation. This time around, he has pardoned 1,100 and commuted 152 sentences.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pardoned 15 and commuted 10 sentences in his two terms. His predecessor, riskaverse Gray Davis, who took pride in his resolute refusal to consider get-out-ofjail pleas, provided none of either.

So Breed would never have a better opportunity to make the case that her brother, who has served about half his 42-year sentence for a 2000 robbery and involuntary manslaughter, received an excessive sentence and deserves another chance at freedom. This governor has shown a willingness to consider the merits without regard to potential public-opinion backlash.

But the request was not without political peril to Breed, as has become apparent in the past few days. She has received legitimate criticism over the way she highlighted her title — “MAYOR LONDON BREED” in block letters at the top of her correspondence to the governor — as well as disclosures that she testified as an alibi witness, saying she saw her brother sleeping on a couch on the night the robbery went down. Did she exploit her position of power? Did she testify falsely?

“I thought about that,” she said of the pros and cons of her involvement. “I said I want to be helpful. Whatever way I could be helpful, that’s what I wanted to do. We thought about it, we discussed it, we even weighed it: Should we do this because this could be problematic?”

The decision was that attaching the prefix “Mayor” to her name did not really matter, in her view.

“The fact is, people are going to know: This is your brother,” she said. “The question isn’t whether it backfires, because it is inevitable. If he (the governor) grants it (clemency), it’s going to come out.”

I nevertheless think it is naive at best, disingenuous at worst, to contend that the accentuation of her title as mayor of San Francisco would not call extra attention to the request for Napoleon’s clemency. Those of us who are in positions of influence — whether a judge, elected official or even a more modest perch as a journalist — know better than to invoke our roles in the public trust to gain advantage that would not be available to everyone else.

But Breed argued that she knew that there was a chance her stature as mayor could even work against her and her brother.

“I made the request probably counter to what was best for me politically, because it is there in writing and it is there for the whole world to see,” she said. “Once I put it in writing, there it is.

“It’s unfortunate that a great position like this (mayor of San Francisco) could be a hindrance to my family. The reason I got into politics in the first place, and doing the work that I’ve done even before I was an elected official, had everything to do with what happened to my family growing up in the city, and the challenges we experienced.”

I can’t begrudge Breed for wanting to free her brother, and I respect her putting herself on the line to assure the state that she would help provide support to allow him to succeed outside the prison walls. Who among us would not do the same for a loved one who had spent two decades behind bars, regardless of the severity of the crime?

As for the alibi that her brother was sleeping on her grandmother’s couch in the Western Addition, our Dec. 21 editorial (full disclosure: I wrote it) concluded that while her account “sounds suspicious, it is not implausible” considering the amorphous timelines. Official accounts had the robbery in the Marina between midnight and 12:40 a.m.

“I told the police and I told the court what I recall from that night when I was asked,” she said. “That’s all I did.”

I would not pretend to be in a position to determine whether Napoleon Brown, now 46, is fit to return to society. Myriad considerations come into play. How did he perform in prison; should the fact he was caught in possession of heroin last year disqualify him for early release? Has he shown genuine contrition? What is the view of the victim’s family? What is the state of his rehabilitation? Was his 42-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter just, considering that convicted murderers often get less time?

These are among the questions a governor must consider.

To his credit, Jerry Brown is willing to take on these tough decisions. The easy way out — see: Gray

“I made this request probably counter to what was best for me politically.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, on the appeal for her brother’s release from prison

Davis — is to pretend the justice system always gets it right, and that every inmate who remains in prison, however unfairly, is one less potential Willie Horton to crop up at election time.

Breed was arguably the toughest-oncrime of the mayoral candidates last year. But she knows the justice system is neither perfect nor colorblind.

“Sadly, there’s clearly an issue with the justice system and how oftentimes African American men are disproportionately impacted, especially in regards to sentencing,” she said. “I think it’s important to really shine a light on this issue.”

Even if it means the harsh spotlight turns to her.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle