CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS GOVERNOR : Harris’ Pending Execution Triggers Duel

The pending execution of Robert Alton Harris entered into the Democratic campaign for governor Thursday when Dianne Feinstein, in response to a reporter’s question, charged that Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp has exploited the case for political gain.

Van de Kamp--who says he personally opposes the death penalty but wants the Harris execution carried out under state law--described Feinstein as misinformed. He said he is only doing his job by holding regular press briefings on the case, keeping a legal “command post” open around the clock and calling for an end to the courtroom maneuvering that has delayed Harris’ execution for years.

The candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor made back-to-back appearances Thursday before a gathering here of an association of California women elected officials. They traded charges in dueling press conferences after their speeches.

Although Feinstein has made an issue of her support for the death penalty and Van de Kamp’s opposition to it, Thursday’s statements marked their first exchange involving Tuesday’s scheduled execution of Harris.

Van de Kamp, Feinstein said, “is a man who said he doesn’t believe in the death penalty up until the time he became a candidate for governor.” Asked if she thought her opponent was trying to exploit the Harris case, she replied: “In my opinion, yes.”

Feinstein said Van de Kamp deserves a share of the blame for the state’s failure to have an execution for 13 years after the Legislature reinstituted the death penalty in 1977. There are now 276 prisoners on Death Row.

“The attorney general has never been a champion of moving along the people’s will,” she said.

Van de Kamp denied that he has dragged his feet. He said that as Los Angeles County district attorney and then as the state’s chief law enforcement officer, he has done all he could to push the complicated cases toward completion.

Van de Kamp told the California Elected Women’s Assn. for Education and Research that, as a political issue, the death penalty is “settled.”

“The people of this state have spoken out dramatically in favor of the death penalty,” he said. “I don’t see that changing. I’ve said that as a legislator, I would not support the death penalty. As governor, I will carry out the law, just as I have as attorney general.”

Van de Kamp bristled at Feinstein’s suggestion that he has tried to use the Harris case to make it appear that he supports capital punishment when he does not.

“I think she’s misinformed,” he said. “This is our first execution in 22 years. I am running the law office responsible for handling this appeal, and I have to take the responsibility or the blame with respect to how we’re dealing with this case.”

Van de Kamp has held press briefings on the case at his office in Sacramento almost every day for the past week. Standing in front of American and California flags, flanked by mug shots of every Death Row prisoner on one side and a glossy photograph of Harris on the other, Van de Kamp has issued statements and fielded questions, pointing to a large diagram to follow the progress of the case through the courts.

At Thursday’s briefing, Van de Kamp compared the plight of Harris to a baseball team down to its final out. Although the scheduled execution is only days away, the date could be delayed if any of Harris’ appeals before three courts is successful.

“A lot can happen before that final out goes in the books,” Van de Kamp said. “Until the final out is made, the game is on, if you can call it a game.”