Death Penalty Decision

We must protest the serious mischaracterization of our remarks after the arraignment in the Mark Thornton case. We did not “charge” Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury with basing his decision to seek the death penalty on political motives.

In our view, neither Mr. Thornton’s background, nor the crime that he is charged with, as tragic as it obviously is, justifies the death penalty in this case. We described the types of cases which in Ventura County have resulted in a verdict of death: multiple murders, men who have been previously convicted of murder, murders that occurred during the course of a sexual assault, and murders of children. The crime that Mr. Thornton is accused of, while extremely grave, does not fit into any of the categories for which Ventura County jurors have imposed the death penalty.

We were asked by one of the reporters whether we felt that the fact that Mr. Bradbury has announced his decision to seek reelection on the day before the decision in the Thornton case had any bearing on his decision to seek the death penalty for Mr. Thornton. While acknowledging that the timing was “curious and perhaps more than a coincidence,” we certainly never accused, nor did we intend to accuse Mr. Bradbury of being politically motivated in this decision.

We wish to emphasize that we feel that Mr. Bradbury’s judgment in seeking the death penalty is not supported by other death penalty cases in this county. We also wish to emphasize that we have not accused him of having been politically motivated in making that decision.

SUSAN R. OLSON

HOWARD J. ASHER

Ventura

Susan Olson and Howard Asher are deputy public defenders.