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.
