Pat Brown Reassesses Executions

If then were now, former California Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown would find a way to spare the life of Caryl Chessman, the so-called “red light” bandit and rapist whose execution in 1960 provoked worldwide outrage, including riots in front of American embassies.

Brown, 83, makes this rueful reassessment in an excerpt from his forthcoming book in the December issue of Los Angeles magazine, due out next week. Coming on the heels of a presidential election in which the death penalty was a key issue and with executions expected to begin next year in California, Brown’s ruminations about the 28-year-old execution resonate beyond the bounds of historical interest.

Not a Lot He Could Do

“I don’t think it’s ever been made public that there wasn’t a hell of a lot Pat could do,” explained Dick Adler, who assisted Brown in preparing “Public Justice, Private Mercy: A Governor’s Education on Death Row,” to be published next spring by Weidenfield and Nicolson.

A global cause celebre largely because of Chessman’s adroitness as a jailhouse lawyer and publicist, the case was one of 36 that ended in executions during the senior Brown’s eight years as governor.

Although he believed Chessman was “almost certainly guilty” and was “a nasty, arrogant, unrepentant man,” Brown concludes in the excerpt: “I didn’t think those crimes deserved the death penalty then, and I certainly don’t think so now. His sentence should have been commuted by someone to life without possibility of parole.”

Today, Chessman’s death in the gas chamber would be impossible because death penalty laws no longer apply to the crimes for which he was convicted--17 counts of robbery and kidnaping. Of the three kidnaping counts, the jury found intent to commit “bodily harm,” which made Chessman, who acted as his own lawyer, eligible for the death penalty under the state’s “Little Lindbergh Law.”

But Brown acknowledges that, at the time, the Chessman case was far from straightforward, politically or legally.

“By the time I had become the someone with that power, other people--myself included as attorney general--had successfully stoked the fires of public indignation so high . . . that such action was virtually impossible, especially for an elected official with programs he hoped to implement for the common good. I firmly believe all that. I also believe that I should have found a way to spare Chessman’s life.”

Court Backed Death

Writer Adler says, however, that Brown’s freedom of action in the case was limited. In Chessman’s case, Brown could not, under the procedures of the day, commute Chessman’s sentence without the agreement of the state Supreme Court, Adler said in a telephone interview. The court favored Chessman’s execution by a 4-3 majority, according to the excerpt, and one justice had postponed his retirement “so that he could continue to vote against Chessman.”

In Brown’s account, state and national turmoil over Chessman were complicated by personal and international considerations. In February, 1960, Brown granted Chessman a 60-day execution stay largely due to the persuasion of Brown’s son Jerry, later governor of California himself.

In a telephone conversation, the son asked Brown, “But Dad, if you were a doctor and there was one chance in a thousand of saving a patient’s life, wouldn’t you take it?”

Brown was also influenced to grant the stay because of a telegram from the U.S. State Department warning that “the growing world hysteria surrounding Chessman’s execution might ignite hostile demonstrations and endanger President Eisenhower’s upcoming visit to Uruguay.”

Even today Brown has a deep ambivalence about the death penalty and his actions as governor. In all, he granted clemency to 23 Death Row inmates, commuting their sentences to life without possibility of parole.

“A few of those 23 people whose death sentences I commuted went on to leave prison because of changes or loopholes in the law and lead normal, successful, productive lives,” Brown writes. “But one man whose life I spared eventually got out of prison and killed a woman. Even now, 25 years later, I still can’t decide whether I would have let those 23 prisoners die if it meant saving the life of that one woman.”

Onward to the ‘90s

The passion for ditching the 1980s like an unwanted house guest continues in magazine land. The latest journal to weigh in with a new look is Self, the 10-year-old monthly paean to women’s health and fitness. To get ready for the 1990s--something already done by staples such as Time--Self has slimmed down its title on the cover and introduced a number of style and content changes in the December issue. And by apparently extending its health and fitness mandate to include its own production values, the magazine announced that beginning with the December issue covers will be shot in a “natural environment” rather than under the glare of artificial studio light.

Among other things, the new-look December issue contains an article, “Breast Frenzy,” that seems to question the cult of narcissism, at least tentatively. At the end of the article about breast implants, a Harvard Medical School doctor asks: “What would future archeologists think if they found these implants in our tombs? . . . What would they think we were doing?”

New Kids in Town

Two new Los Angeles-area general interest magazines have popped up in the last couple of months.

Hollywood Magazine is just out with its December issue, its second, in what editor Al Austin calls a “hip pocket” venture. The bimonthly--a blend of movie nostalgia, brief interviews with contemporary actors and actresses, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce bulletins and standard, almost shopworn features such as surveys of famous L.A. restaurants--seems intensely local.

But it is distributed nationally on newsstands, according to Austin. That may be a smart move. Stories that might seem recycled or derivative here could seem fresh and interesting a few thousand miles from Sunset Boulevard.

There are some real pluses, however. An interview with Hollywood photographer Joseph Jasgur is heavily sprinkled with a trove of black and white photos of stars and moguls. These include a shot of Daryl F. Zanuck, wearing an ascot and smoking a cigar, playing cards, and Jane Russell rinsing her stockings in a bathroom sink.

South Bay Lifestyle

Meanwhile, the monthly South Bay Lifestyle is making its debut with the December issue. In his letter to readers, editor Darcy Sullivan bills it as “the only glossy, color magazine covering the whole South Bay, from San Pedro to Playa del Rey.”

The 64-page premiere issue’s lead piece is a profile of Chantal Westerman of ABC’s “Good Morning, America.” In the story, the broadcaster confesses to spending weekends with another network.

“People assume I’m out on the town every night at Spago,” she told the magazine. “Well, I haven’t missed ‘West 57th’ (on CBS) in a long time and that’s on Saturday night.”