CA: Most state D.A.'s silent on death-penalty reasoning

[flashl]

Many refuse to answer a law school survey asking how each decided whether to seek execution. L.A. County's Steve Cooley was among the few who did.

Three-quarters of California's elected district attorneys refused to disclose how they choose defendants to face the death penalty, according to a report slated for presentation at a public hearing in Los Angeles today.

In a report to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which is examining how the death penalty is applied in California, Pepperdine law school professors Harry M. Caldwell, Carol Chase and Christine Goodman said only 14 of the state's 58 counties agreed to provide detailed answers to questions about the selection process.

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"As the ultimate decision for each county rests with an elected official, the district attorney, one would hope that the district attorney would value transparency in his/her decision-making process, both to ensure that these important decisions are being made as evenhandedly as possible and to give the electorate the opportunity to voice approval or disapproval of the process," the professors said.

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Colusa County Dist. Atty. John Poyner, president of the district attorneys' association, said "there is a movement afoot to eliminate the death penalty" or to reduce the number of special circumstances that would make a murder eligible for it. "We don't want to give that any fuel" by providing answers to a questionnaire, Poyner said.

LA Times