BIRD: Opposed : Prosecutors Assn. Urges Defeat of Justice Bird

The California District Attorneys Assn. decided Thursday to urge defeat at the polls next year of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and state Supreme Court Associate Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin.

Meeting behind closed doors for three hours, directors of the prosecutors organization delayed taking a stand on confirmation of Associate Justice Stanley Mosk until he announces whether he intends to seek another term.

The four justices, widely perceived as philosophical liberals, have been accused by critics, including Gov. George Deukmejian, of failing to implement the death penalty and with showing more concern for criminals than victims.

Association President Michael D. Bradbury, district attorney of Ventura County, said the 15 board members voted unanimously to oppose the confirmation to 12-year terms of the three justices but refused to discuss the reasons for what he called the “unprecedented” action.

‘Educational Role’ Seen

He said the organization would perform an “educational role” and would make public on May 1 its reasons for seeking defeat of the jurists.

Bradbury said the reasons were “not in the form yet that is understandable” to non-lawyers and would be written into a “document that the public can understand.”

The failure to disclose the association’s reasons was immediately assailed by Anthony Murray, a Los Angeles attorney and former State Bar of California president who serves as Bird’s spokesman on the confirmation issue.

“An opinion of that kind, unsupported by reasons, has to be rejected,” he said. “The statement that their reasons can only be understood by lawyers is an insult to every intelligent citizen of California who is not a lawyer.

“I’m satisfied that when the people review the real record, they will strongly support this court and will reject the attackers.”

Bird, who narrowly survived an attempt to oust her in 1978, Grodin and Reynoso, the court’s first Latino member, were appointed by former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. Mosk was an appointee of former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr.

Lucas Also Faces Vote

Also up for confirmation will be the court’s newest member, Malcolm M. Lucas, the only justice appointed by Deukmejian. Bradbury told reporters that “preliminary indications” show Lucas to be “fair and evenhanded.”

The action by the association’s directors was expected. Last month it announced a poll of district attorneys and their deputies that showed strong opposition among prosecutors to Bird, Grodin and Reynoso. Mosk fared somewhat better.

But Bradbury said the association would not raise money to defeat the judges and would not align itself with other groups that want the justices defeated, including “Crime Victims for Court Reform (Bye-Bye Birdie)” and the “California Birdwatchers Society.” He said that the “Bye-Bye Birdie” group was “less than professional.”

Bradbury said he hopes that prosecutors could take a lead “in framing the issues and perhaps thereby eliminate some of the emotionalism that can surround this type of issue.”

Defenders of the justices, including Democrats in the Legislature, are expected to embrace a campaign theme that will stress the necessity for courts to be independent of political pressures.

Bradbury insisted that many Californians are “confused” about the meaning of courts being independent.

“It means that (the court) should be independent of the other two branches of government, the legislative and executive,” he said. “It does not, however, mean that the justices should not in some sense be accountable to the people.”

He insisted that prosecutors “want a fair and evenhanded court. We just want to know that when we go in on an issue that we don’t have two strikes against us.”