About Lily: An Iraq war veteran in the Army, Lily has served as a lawyer as an Army Trial Counsel, and a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney and an Assistant District Attorney in Savannah, Georgia and Fort Wort, Texas. He earned his law degree from Cornell Law School in 2003.
More information: www.jakelilly.com
Why should voters choose you for this office?
I am running to bring the necessary reform to the criminal justice system and prevent future crime. Americans across the country agree that we have gone too far in terms of mass incarceration, the warehousing of the mentally ill, and the failure to treat those suffering from addiction and yet change is slow. I'm coming from the outside to change the system and stop spending so incredibly much money in the process.
Describe an accomplishment that best illustrates your effectiveness as a leader.
I learned leadership leading convoys through Baghdad looking to find and stop Iraqi torture camps. I learned leadership means taking responsibility at all times, and always leading from the front by example. My greatest accomplishment isn't the lives I saved or the thousands of cases I have prosecuted and defended. My greatest accomplishment is that every single one of the men and women who went out with me came home alive.
What steps should your office take to keep up with shifting legal landscape surrounding marijuana?
The voters of Jefferson County solidly approved the legalization of marijuana and it is up to the DA to respect and enforce that choice. Marijuana must now be regulated, just as alcohol is regulated, and we need to resist the attempts by many in the criminal justice system to act like marijuana should still be illegal. Our focus on marijuana must be ensuring its safety and keeping it away from children.
How best should the First Judicial District use diversion courts, such as those for drug users or veterans?
Diversion courts are absolutely essential towards stopping the incarceration of those needing treatment for addiction and mental health issues. It's incredible that so many judges, county commissioners, and other interested parties have worked so hard to bring about these courts. Now, we need to adequately fund them so the diversion courts can be greatly expanded and DAs need to be leading that fight to get state funding. Diversion courts need to go to the next level.
Crime rates ticked upwards last year after years of decline. As DA, how would you respond?
DAs have taken credit for the 30 year drop in crime but merely demanded more resources and higher sentences whenever crime rises. That has to stop. Addressing the massive increase in sexual assaults over the last few years will be my priority. We still fail to adequately make people feel truly heard in reporting sexual assault, to address rape culture, and we fail in having victims believe in the certainty of prosecution of those crimes.
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/Jake-Lilly,237765
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