When Kamala first ran for
district attorney in 2003,
she was very clear about
her position that she had,
for her entire life,
opposed the death penalty
and, if elected district
attorney of San Francisco,
she pledged to never bring a capital case
to a San Francisco jury.
Then, just within the first
month of her new office,
a plainclothes police officer
was killed on the job.
She then attended the memorial
mass, which was attended
by about 3,000 uniformed
police officers who had come
from around the state,
and during the eulogies
at St. Mary's Cathedral, in
the middle of a Catholic mass,
that drumbeat for the death
penalty was annunciated.
And 3,000 uniformed
officers stood and applauded
the suggestion that this
assailant should be put to death.
And I remember my asking
the rhetorical question,
"What is it that we want
from our local candidates?
"Do we want them to hold
true to their promises,
"to the voters, or do we
want them to crumble once
"the political pressure and
heat is turned up so high?"
But I learned quite a bit
about my friend Kamala
at that time, that no matter
what, that she would not
charge and pursue the
death penalty in any case.
(gentle music)
