S.F. Mayor Breed Appoints Manohar Raju as Successor to Late Public Defender Jeff Adachi

Updated 11:45 a.m.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced during a press conference Monday the appointment of Manohar "Mano" Raju as San Francisco public defender. He succeeds Jeff Adachi, who died suddenly on Feb. 22.

The 50-year-old Raju is the son of immigrants from India. He had managed the San Francisco Public Defender's felony unit and has been with the office for 11 years. He first began working as a public defender in Contra Costa County 18 years ago.

"Mano has the experience, the commitment, and the vision to lead this office and fight for those who need a voice, both in the courtroom and the community," Breed said.

Raju said during the press conference that being public defender was a "calling."

"We are going to renew and recharge our commitment to excellence for our clients," Raju said. "We are going to continue broader reform efforts, we are going to continue to protect the public against overreaching government abuses. We are going to continue our struggle for racial justice in this city and statewide, and we are going to deepen our empowering engagement with the communities we serve."

Raju spoke of his appreciation of Breed for keeping the appointment within the public defender's office.

"If you haven’t stood alone in front of a jury and tried to address issues of implicit bias or tried to explain why your client who suffers from complex trauma, and perhaps mental illness, did what he did — if you haven’t done that then you can’t have a deep understanding of what we do day-in and day-out," Raju said.

Matt Gonzalez, chief attorney in the public defender's office and a former San Francisco supervisor and mayoral candidate, served as acting public defender since Adachi's death.

"Mano is just a fantastic choice, and I could not be happier with this decision," Gonzalez said. "He has a keen intellect, he is an exception trial lawyer, and I can tell you I’ve seen a lot of trial lawyers, he may be the very best I’ve seen."

Raju will serve as interim public defender until elections are held on Nov. 5, which will determine who will serve the remaining three years of Adachi's term. San Francisco is the only county in California that elects its public defender.

Adachi had served as public defender since 2003 and was elected to five terms in office. He was known for work that went well beyond the purview of defending indigent clients through his office. He pushed for criminal justice reform around California, and for pension reform in his adopted city. And more than once, he blew the whistle on police misconduct, angering the powerful officers union, which became a permanent enemy.

Adachi, a Japanese-American from Sacramento whose parents and grandparents were interned during World War II, was 59 when he died.

KQED's Guy Marzorati and Bay City News contributed to this post.