Speaker Open to Execution of 13-Year-Olds

Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante said Thursday that it would be a hard personal struggle for him, but if forced to do so, he might--with a “tear in my eye”--cast a vote to execute “hardened criminals” as young as 13 or 14.

Bustamante’s statement came one day after Gov. Pete Wilson, when asked, said he would consider setting the age at 14 “as a possibility.”

California’s minimum age for execution is 18, and though no proposal is being considered to lower that, the issue of how to treat vicious young criminals is part of a proposal the governor is making to change the juvenile justice system.

In that context, Wilson, Bustamante and other lawmakers have been asked about how tough the state should be toward its youngest violent criminals.

Execution might be the right decision, the Democratic speaker from Fresno said, for a youngster who kills and has no chance of rehabilitation. “Maybe that’s where we’ve gotten,” he said.

In a wide-ranging discussion with Times reporters at a Sacramento bureau luncheon, Bustamante also said:

* Assembly Democrats, accused by Republicans of stalling legislative movement of welfare reform, are spending no more time presenting proposals than Wilson did earlier.

* An across-the-board 5% bank and corporate tax cut proposed by Wilson is “dead” on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Assembly. Targeted tax breaks for business, he said, are a possibility.

* He is “not afraid of responsible people” owning firearms--as he did while growing up--but allowing circulation of weapons such as rapid-firing assault rifles troubles him.

* He could see himself supporting U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein as the Democratic candidate in next year’s governor’s race, but millionaire Al Checchi, who has expressed interest, “is an interesting fellow,” and announced candidate Gray Davis, who is now lieutenant governor, “is one tenacious son of a bitch.”

Bustamante grappled openly and seemingly sincerely with the idea of executing young killers.

“I guess I would default to say that a hardened criminal is a hardened criminal no matter at what age,” he said. “But it doesn’t go down very easy” to say the state should put to death youths barely into their teens.

He conceded that the death penalty for some young teenagers may be appropriate, because “I believe that in a specific situation a child may be lost forever. . . . If I voted aye it would probably be with a tear in my eye. I don’t know how I’d vote right now.”

Bustamante’s remarks were in contrast to those of the Senate’s Democratic leader, Bill Lockyer of Hayward.

Lockyer has dismissed the idea of executing 14-year-olds as “nutty.”

Though Wilson made headlines with remarks that he would consider the concept of executing 14-year-olds, the issue is purely theoretical given current state law and a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the death sentence of a boy of 15. The court has subsequently allowed the execution of 16-year-olds.

As for welfare, Bustamante said that there is room for negotiation with Wilson as various bills move through the Legislature, but that there will be differences between the governor and Democrats over “policy and philosophy” as debate unfolds.

Bustamante said he would settle for nothing less than a “safety net for children and seniors and a real opportunity . . . for the 100,000 a year who are going to be leaving public assistance and going into the job market.”

In the governor’s plan, he said, there are “several things I don’t like,” such as “the fact he doesn’t mention anything about children and he doesn’t have a jobs expansion” program for recipients being forced to find jobs.

In addition, Bustamante said, he opposes Wilson’s proposal to cut $500 million from welfare.

As for the the Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls, Bustamante said that although he could see himself supporting Feinstein, if she decides to run, the drive and energy of Davis are something to behold.

“He’s a machine,” Bustamante said. “He is difficult to stop. . . . He’s like the Terminator (a character in Arnold Schwarzenegger movies). You blow him up and he just keeps on going. Strip him of all his flesh and he keeps coming. He’s one tenacious son of a bitch.”