Police Unions Once Shunned Her

However, her stint as DA wasn’t free from pressing challenges. Fresh off her win, she made one of her most controversial decisions in 2004. She decided not to pursue the death penalty against a man who killed a San Francisco police officer. Senator Dianne Feinstein criticized the decision.

It also led to Harris being shunned by police unions for the decade that followed. She was later accused of political opportunism when she refused to support initiatives that would’ve led to banning the death penalty as California’s top lawyer and law enforcement official.