Family Ties Bind on Death Penalty Issue

As a teen-ager, Kathleen Brown would wait for her father to go to bed, then sneak down the spiral staircase of the old Governor’s Mansion and read his thick black briefing book on the latest death penalty case.

She’d stare at grisly photographs of the victim, the crime scene and the killer on Death Row. She’d read the horrifying details and the letters from families--from the victim’s demanding retribution and from the condemned’s pleading for mercy.

“I will never forget those death penalty days,” she told reporters Tuesday, standing solemnly in the living room where her father, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, had agonized over life or death decisions from a mustard-colored chair.

She could tell when another execution was approaching because she’d arrive home from school to find chanting demonstrators in her path. One evening, as she walked up the back steps with her father, an elderly woman in tears grabbed the governor and begged him to spare her son.

She vividly recalls attending the opening ceremonies of the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley as a 14-year-old, how joy suddenly turned to fright when thunderous boos greeted the introduction of her mother. Bernice Brown was there representing her husband, who had just stayed the execution of “Red Light Bandit” Caryl Chessman.

In all, her father sent 36 people to the gas chamber and granted clemency to 23 others, a record. He tried twice to abolish the death penalty. The issue severely damaged his political career. It left him vulnerable to attacks from Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

“Even in the face of all of that,” his daughter reminded, “he stood firm in his personal opposition. It was a value passed on to me that was so strong and powerful, I could no more contemplate being politically correct on this issue than contemplate disavowing my family . . .

“I oppose it because my father taught me it was wrong and the religious experiences I had reinforced that.”

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For an hour, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee bared her soul. She revealed details of her formative years and offered insights into her Catholic faith. But she never could explain to reporters specifically what it was her father taught was wrong about the death penalty--or how it violated her religious beliefs.

And my conclusion was that Brown’s opposition to capital punishment is rooted primarily--if not totally--in deep devotion and intense loyalty to her father, now 89 and ailing.

Pat Brown opposed the death penalty on the grounds that it did not deter murderers, it clogged the courts and was enforced unfairly. But “those are not my reasons,” his daughter said.

“It’s been very hard for me to talk about because there is no neat and tidy way . . . I can’t give you a black and white answer . . . It is a gut thing.” She said her father’s advice on the issue was to “follow the gut.”

As for deterrence and “all the other arguments,” she said, “I can argue those either way . . . It’s a deterrent to the person who is executed.”

Is she troubled by the state’s taking of a life? “No . . . I am not speaking as a theologian . . .

“I am speaking about values that suffused my upbringing. They were in part Catholic. And they were very much values that I learned from my family and particularly, in a very personal way with respect to the death penalty, from my father . . . In fact, the church itself is divided.”

She opposes capital punishment, Kathleen Brown indicated, because to support it would be tantamount to repudiating her father.

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Last December, I asked Brown why she opposed the death penalty and her reply was “that’s irrelevant” because she would enforce it. After finally hearing her answer, I’m inclined to agree.

At times, she sounded like a death penalty supporter. She has always understood--partly because of those old briefing books--why the public demands capital punishment, she said. “I would feel the same way if anyone harmed my children or my grandchildren.”

As a crime-fighting tool, the death penalty itself is virtually irrelevant. There have been only two executions in Gov. Pete Wilson’s term, none in George Deukmejian’s two terms. There are 383 murderers stacked on Death Row. Any blame rests with the federal appeals system and has nothing to do with Sacramento.

It would be refreshing if the gubernatorial campaign were fought over some legitimately important issues--how to combat gangs, create jobs and improve schools.

But the death penalty is a comforting symbol for too many voters. It is Brown’s position, rather than answers, that leaves her vulnerable to Wilson. And he’ll hound her--as Nixon and Reagan did her father.