A native of Washington County, Robert M. Winn is committed to the conservative values of Upstate New York which respects the rights and lives of each and every resident of this community.

Winn is committed to restoring competency, professionalism, and ethics to the Washington County District Attorney’s Office.

What We Stand For

• Competent and Professional Prosecution of Violent Criminals
  
  Although Washington County is not New York City or even Albany in terms of violent crime, serious crime does happen here in terms of child abuse, burglaries, robberies, and, on occasion, murder.  When such crimes occur, it is important that the District Attorney’s Office rolls up its sleeves and gets to work to prosecute those crimes.  During the sixteen years that Winn served as District Attorney, no felony case was ever dismissed because of speedy trial grounds.  The County needs a District Attorney who is a hard-working, intelligent professional with an understanding of the need to prosecute serious violent offenders and to obtain appropriate, long-term sentences (Please click here for link to Post-Star article on sentencing of two murder defendants during Winn’s initial tenure).
  

• Competent and Professional Prosecution of Young, Non-Violent Offenders
  
  Although Winn, as District Attorney, could be tough on murderers, child abusers, and serious violent offenders, Winn also understood that not every offender before the Washington County criminal justice system is a violent felony offender and that , while some cases require a harsh disposition, other cases call for a more balanced approach.  For this reason, Winn always supported programs, such as the Drug Treatment Court, which were designed to provide rehabilitation to non-violent offenders. (Please click here for link to Post-Star article on Washington County Drug Court).
  

• Competent and Professional Prosecution of Sexual Offense Cases
  
  Sexual crimes, particularly against children, are typical the most serious crimes with which the District Attorney’s Office will contend. Quite frankly, these cases have to be reviewed closely at the outset of the case and all of the available evidence has to be reviewed before a decision to indict a case is made.  While it is important that a case with competent, true evidence be prosecuted, it is as important that cases with dubious, questionable evidence not be pushed to trial and then plea-bargained away or dismissed before or after trial.  During Winn’s earlier tenure as District Attorney, there were a significant number of sexual offenders against children who were appropriately prosecuted and sentenced. These are important cases which have to be competent and professionally prosecuted.
  

• Drug Enforcement Always Has to Be the Priority
  
  Drug enforcement has to be the priority of law enforcement as a proliferation of drugs is the one criminal justice issue which can affect the community as a whole.  There has to be an intelligent and consistent response to such problem.  Distilled to its essence, the drug trade has "supply" and "demand" components to it like any other "sale."  Attention has to be placed on both the supply and demand aspect of this crime. The “demand” side of any drug transaction is, of course, the user of the drug, the person buying the drugs.  The "supply" side of any drug transaction is the person selling the drugs. The "demand" side of the drug trade in Washington County is largely local — the "supply" side of the drug trade is Washington County is, at times, local, but is often non-locals setting up shop at temporary residences in Washington County or actually out-of-the county with drug users within the County going outside of the County to buy drugs.  In essence, the only side of the equation that the local law enforcement community has more complete control over is the "demand" side as users of illegal drugs can travel to Troy, Schenectady, Albany, etc., to purchase illegal drugs and bring them back to the local community.  This frequently occurs, particularly for harder drugs such as heroin.  Quite simply, it is as important to reduce the "demand" for drugs as it is to attack the "supply."  Over the long haul, it is more important to reduce the "demand."
  
  This campaign advocates (1) significant sentencing for the drug suppliers to deter transient dealers from setting up "shop" in Washington County; and (2) appropriate efforts to identify drug users who are involved in the criminal justice system, especially for minor, non-violent offenses, and obtain appropriate dispositions for such users which ultimately reduce the demand for drugs.
  

• Budget Issues
  
  Containing the Washington County budget and, when possible, assisting in the reduction of the Washington County budget should be a daily issue of the Washington County District Attorney's Office.
  

• Ethics
  
  Robert M. Winn is a native of Washington County and has essentially lived here his entire life.  His plans are to live here for the rest of his life.  For Robert Winn, ethics means doing the right thing in every case, whether the defendant or the victim, is rich, poor, politically connected or not politically connected, whether the defendant or the victim is Republican or Democrat.  Doing the right thing means working hard on the case and examining it closely before charges are filed and working hard on the case after it is filed.  Doing the right thing doesn’t mean filing a charge to get some positive publicity and then trying to quietly dismiss it when a fuller review of the case shows the case should not have been brought in the first place.
  
  United States Supreme Court Justice and Albany Law School alumni Robert Jackson once wrote about prosecution ethics as follows:
  
  "The qualities of a good prosecutor are as elusive and as impossible to define as those which mark a gentleman.  And those who need to
  be told would not understand it anyway.  A sensitiveness to fair play and sportsmanship is perhaps the best protection against the abuse of power, and the citizen's safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves
  the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility."
  
  This central sensitivity to fair play and desire to serve the law, rather than politics, must be a central ethical concern of the Washington County District Attorney.
  

© 2009 WinnForDistrictAttorney.com.

Paid for by Robert Winn for District Attorney

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