Katharine Edwards
statement likely AII first walked into Seattle Municipal Court as an eighth grader, working on a school project about public defense. I did not plan on a career there. I have spent the last 16 years in that courtroom and others across King County, standing next to people on the hardest days of their lives. I have represented people facing misdemeanors and people facing serious felonies. I have tried homicide cases, negotiated treatment alternatives, and stood beside kids in foster care. That work showed me what addiction, poverty, and lack of treatment do to a person long before a judge opens the file. Municipal Court handles misdemeanors, the lowest criminal charge in Washington, but small cases still carry heavy consequences. A person can sit in jail on a misdemeanor while someone charged with a felony goes home the same afternoon. Judges lose the public’s trust when the punishment stops matching the charge. As a judge I will hear both sides in full and hold the prosecution and the defense to the same standard. Before I order anyone into a program, I want to see the research behind it and the data on whether it works. The people who run those programs should have a say in how they change. Accountability should fit the offense and leave the person better able to stay out of court. I am asking for your vote. Endorsed by: Seattle Municipal Court Judges Anita Crawford Willis, Damon Shadid, and Pooja Vaddadi, King County Democrats, the 32nd, 34th, 36th, 37th, 43rd, and 46th LD Democrats, Former Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, King County Superior Court Judges Rothrock, Larranaga, Hecklinger, Vargas, Keenan, and McKee, King County District Court Judges Shotwell, Dhillon, Peaquin, and Paglisotti, National Women’s Political Caucus, Machinists Local 751, Ironworkers Local 86, UAW 4121, and many more.