Kenney on the issues

Key issues

Experience, commitment to community safety and working with community groups; ability to lead the office. "I have worked for the last 8 years as DA to build coalitions with many of our advocacy groups on matters such as Domestic Violence, Children's issues, Sexual Assault victim's services and Elder abuse concerns. I think these networks are crucial to addressing the needs of all our citizens. As a prosecutor, we must aggressively pursue those who have committed crimes in our community. But beyond effective prosecution, we must take a proactive approach to addressing the root of criminal behavior, and to educate our citizens how to avoid being victims... . I supervise a team of 23 full time employees, including 11 full time prosecutors who each year handle over 2000 adult cases, 500 juvenile cases, appeals, traffic, involuntary commitments, forfeitures, etc. The work load of the District Attorney's office is much larger than that of all other city attorney's offices in our county."

Experience

She was elected in a three-way race in 1996 and was re-elected in 2000. "I started out in the DA's office under Jim Flory after being in private practice for 1 1/2 years. Although I had handled criminal cases as an attorney on the appointment panel, that really didn't prepare me for my job as a prosecutor. When I joined the Dg. Co. DA's office in 1989, I had the benefit of working with several experienced prosecutors who knew criminal law and procedure inside and out. I started my career as a prosecutor handling child in need of care cases, moved up to traffic, then misdemeanors, and finally as a felony trial attorney before running for office the first time. I honestly believe that what makes me effective as District Attorney is the fact that I know the workings of that office from top to bottom. I think the only way to understand what a prosecutor and the District attorney do, is to have the hands-on experience of working your way up through the office."

Conviction rate for the DA's office.

Disputes Branson's contention that the conviction rate is under half of those tried.
"What we found was that in 54% of the felony trials, the defendant was convicted as charged, or of another felony. In another 21%, the defendant was found guilty of a misdemeanor. In only 21% of the cases, the jury returned a not guilty verdict. Since that article, we have had two more felony trials resulting in guilty verdicts as charged, or to another felony (and no acquittals). As I have stated a number of times since taking office, I believe that we should be winning more trials than we are losing. However, if we are winning all of our trials, then we are not taking cases to the jury that deserve a trial. In addition, a comparison to other counties in FY 2003 showed that our conviction rate is equal to Shawnee Co. and Johnson Co."

Treatment of victims

"There is no question that after experiencing the trauma of the crime, that we need to do everything possible to make the court process run as smoothly as possible. We currently have two victim advocates, one with over 15 years in the office, and one with over 10 years in the office, who work very hard to make sure all our victims and witnesses are notified of every step of the process. We review in excess of 4,000 investigations on adults each year, resulting in about 2,000 adult criminal cases filed. In addition, the State is under constitutional time constraints that require cases to be heard quickly ... especially if the defendant is in custody. I know that each of my prosecutors works very hard to have personal contact with our victims and witnesses. Often times we are pressed to get our witnesses served before the hearing, especially preliminary hearings. We understand that the process is stressful and inconvenient and we work every day to resolve procedures to make the experience easier on our victims and witnesses."