My mantra about everything that has to do with public policy is: identify and reject the false choice.

My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.

To change criminal justice policy in any meaningful way means to propose changing a very longstanding system. It's not realistic to think you can do it overnight.

I believe in that old adage that 'as goes California, so goes the country.

With the advent of DNA, we know that people have been convicted and sentenced to death who later proved not to be guilty of the crime.

I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.

No woman should be told she can't make her own decisions about her body. If women's reproductive rights come under attack, I will be standing up for women.