Brown-Whitman Debate: Death penalty

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Kevin Riggs asked about the execution of Albert Brown scheduled for Thursday, and whether the death penalty appeals process was too long.

Jerry Brown said the appeals process was ‘certainly too lengthy.

‘I’d rather have a society where we didn’t have to use death as a punishment,’ he said. But he said he would enforce the law and wanted the process hastened.

‘I will faithfully carry out our law on executions,’ he said.

Whitman responded she would be ‘a tough-on-crime governor,’ talking about her support for three-strikes sentencing laws and the death penalty. ‘Jerry has a long, 40-year record of being quite liberal on crime,’ Whitman said, citing Brown’s appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court when he was governor.

‘I don’t want to play politics with the death penalty,’ Brown said in his response.

-- Anthony York in Davis