San Francisco Chronicle writer Bob Egelko posts, "Harris takes a pass on death penalty initiative."
Attorney General Kamala Harris is one of California’s best-known opponents of capital punishment. She promised not to seek the death penalty as a candidate for district attorney in San Francisco and kept that pledge even after a notorious cop killing soon after she took office in 2004. She’s promised to enforce the law as attorney general but maintained her personal opposition, calling the death penalty expensive and ineffective and citing DNA evidence that has exonerated Death Row inmates in other states.
So you might have expected Harris to endorse Proposition 34, the November ballot measure that would abolish California’s death penalty and replace it with a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. She’s fended off questions in media interviews, noting that her office was preparing the official title and summary for the measure that were subject to court challenge, implying it would be a conflict of interest to take sides . Her media spokespeople have said Harris wouldn’t have anything to say about Prop. 34 until all challenges were resolved and the ballot pamphlet was on its way to the state printer.
The only such court case ended Friday when a judge in Sacramento upheld the AG’s title and summary for the death penalty measure against a challenge by prosecutors and law enforcement groups and ordered only a minor change in the wording of the ballot arguments in favor of Prop. 34. So with the ballot materials headed for the printer, a reporter put in a call Monday to Harris’ press office, where spokeswoman Lynda Gledhill said there were no plans for the attorney general to take a position on the initiative. She didn’t give a reason.
The article also notes that California Governor Jerry Brown is not expected to take a position on Prop. 34.
Santa Cruz Sentinel columnist Scott Herhold writes, "DA Jeff Rosen believes in death penalty, reluctant to invoke it."
If you blinked at the wrong time, you might have missed a milestone last week on a fundamental issue of crime and punishment in Santa Clara County. The question: When does someone deserve the death penalty?
For Paul Ray Castillo, 34, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering talk show host Cindy Nguyen last year, the question is no longer on the table. He will spend life in prison without chance of parole.
The process, however, offered insight into the most important player in the criminal justice system: District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
The 45-year-old former homicide prosecutor supports the death penalty. A man who often invokes the Old Testament, he regards it as a moral response to the ultimate crime.
But in this case, as in the case of child-killer Samuel Corona in early 2011, the prosecutors settled for less. When Castillo's lawyers said he was repentant enough to take life in prison without possibility of parole, Rosen accepted it.
The bottom line? Rosen is unlikely to bring the death penalty unless overwhelming circumstances demand it. And the hurdle looks high.
And:
When would Rosen bring a death penalty case? The DA says he would certainly weigh it carefully in the case of a cop-killer or mass shooter. No capital cases are pending before his death review committee now, although capital charges could be brought against the accused killer of Sierra LaMar.
Here's the irony: A prosecutor who believes in the death penalty is reluctant to invoke it. And that may say something about our ambivalence as a community. Jeff Rosen has a finger not just on the facts of the case -- but on our pulse.
Earlier coverage of Prop. 34, the SAFE California ballot initiative, begins at the link.
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