'The View' Host Sunny Hostin Confronts Amy Klobuchar for Failing to 'Prosecute a Single Killing by The Police' When She Was U.S. Attorney

The View host Sunny Hostin confronted Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar about her lack of support from black voters and her record as a county attorney, saying she "failed to prosecute a single killing by the police" during her eight years in the position.

Klobuchar did not directly answer Hostin's question about prosecuting police. Instead, the Democratic presidential candidate told Hostin that while there is systematic racism in the criminal justice system, she is still proud of the work she did going after white-collar criminals, as well as a successful drug court, decreasing the number of incarcerated African Americans by 12 percent and diversifying her office.

Klobuchar also referenced her work on the First Step Act, which helps people prepare for jobs and classes after spending time in prison and also reduces prison sentences, as an example of work she's done to fight systemic racism.

Klobuchar cited support from the black community in Minnesota as evidence that she can improve her numbers with black voters if she can show more of them who she is.

"As for my support in the African American community, I've always had strong support in my elections at home, and I have a number of key leaders in the African American community from Minnesota that have gone and campaigned for me in places like California and Iowa, and that will continue," she said.

"My challenge is to get people to know me," Klobuchar continued. "My message of economic opportunity of investing in our schools—I think that matters. I think that my focus on voting rights—Sunny, I am the leader on the bill to register every kid in this country when they turn 18. I think that is going to matter. I'm the leader on the bill to get rid of gerrymandering, to get rid of voting purges."

According to American Public Media, Klobuchar did not criminally charge law enforcement personnel in cases involving fatalities when she was Minnesota's Hennepin County attorney. Instead, she left the decision to a grand jury, even when victims' families requested her to press charges.

Hostin also pressed Klobuchar on the Myon Burrell case, which the candidate referenced when she was running for Senate in 2006. Burrell, a black teen, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 for the accidental killing of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, who was killed by a stray bullet. Then 16, he was prosecuted by Klobuchar's office.

According to the Associated Press, Burrell has maintained his innocence. The lack of a gun, fingerprints and DNA evidence, as well as evidence that wasn't obtained or lost, including investigators' failure to check alibis suggests Burrell may have been innocent. One of his co-defendants has insisted that he was actually the one responsible for Edwards' death.

"How do you defend something like that to someone like me, who is the mother of a black boy, a black teenager? This case would be my worst teenager," Hostin said.

Klobuchar said that Burrell's case should be reopened and reviewed. "I've called for the office and the courts to review the evidence," she said. "That's what we must do in the justice system. I've also worked extensively with the Innocence Project in my previous job, and we reviewed all the serious cases we had that involved DNA evidence."

Klobuchar's campaign did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Newsweek.