Santa Clara County May Call for Halt to Executions

Santa Clara County, the eclectic Bay Area stretch encompassing everything from Silicon Valley to the garlic farms of Gilroy, is poised to call for a temporary halt in the death penalty.

Although it would only echo recent declarations from historically leftist strongholds such as Berkeley and Santa Cruz, a vote in such a large, diverse and moderate county would signify that the national uncertainty about capital punishment has become mainstream in California, advocates say.

Santa Clara County’s endorsement would show that “the moratorium is an effort which can appeal to all parts of the state,” said Lance Lindsey, executive director of Death Penalty Focus, the San Francisco group leading a statewide moratorium campaign.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a nonbinding resolution asking the governor to place a moratorium on executions. The freeze would remain in effect until studies on fairness in sentencing and the risk of executing innocent people were completed.

Jim Beall, the Santa Clara board chairman, said the resolution reflects not only his moderate view--he backs the death penalty if it is properly applied--but the increasing ethnic diversity in California. Long-standing questions about whether the death penalty is fair to all races are now more urgent, he said.

“The county’s a lot different than it was even 20 years ago, and we need to make sure we’re doing the right thing and make sure there are no biases in the system,” Beall said.

White residents constitute 44% of Santa Clara County’s population, according to the 2000 census. That is down from 58% in 1990. Asian Americans and Latinos each make up about a quarter of the population, and African Americans account for roughly 3%.

Beall also sees his home as a bellwether for other parts of the state. Santa Clara County includes vast farms and ranches, Stanford, Santa Clara and San Jose State universities, high-tech firms, sprawling housing developments and barrios. “We’re like a small L.A. County; we’re a pretty diverse society,” he said.

With 1.7 million residents, Santa Clara is the state’s fourth most populous county, roughly tied with San Bernardino and behind Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego. Santa Clara County judges sentenced 28 of the state’s death row convicts, according to the California Department of Corrections. Judges in nearby San Francisco have sentenced only three people to death.

Similar moratorium measures have passed in more than 30 cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore and Philadelphia. In California, moratorium resolutions have passed in tiny Menlo Park and the liberal bastions of Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Cruz and San Francisco.

Terry McCaffrey, a retired IBM engineer who is a leader in Santa Clara’s moratorium campaign, also sees his county as a likely linchpin. “People look at Santa Clara as a center-of-the-road kind of community,” he said. “I would think people see Berkeley as to the left.”

USC political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe said winning support for a moratorium in Southern California could be tough. “There are very conservative and vocal parts of Los Angeles County,” she said. “I don’t think it would be a slam dunk.”

Although McCaffrey hopes the moratorium would be a step toward abolition of capital punishment, he said the campaign also appeals to those who favor the death penalty but question its application.

Resolution supporters say a moratorium would allow time for new studies on how race, income, the county in which one is sentenced and the quality of legal representation are linked to death sentences. Santa Clara’s resolution also calls for “safeguards” to eliminate any such discrimination.

“The issue is fairness,” McCaffrey said.

In February 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican who supports the death penalty, imposed a moratorium in his state. Ryan acted after 13 men were freed from death row in Illinois because judges had concluded they were wrongfully convicted.

Santa Clara supervisors are likely to pass the resolution, which has cleared a board committee, said Sylvia Gallegos, chief of staff to Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, who supports the resolution.

Ellen Kreitzberg, a Santa Clara University law professor who lobbied the supervisors in favor of the measure, said that none of the five board members have said they oppose a moratorium and that the resolution could win a unanimous vote.

Lindsey of Death Penalty Focus said he hopes a flurry of resolutions by cities and counties, along with a petition drive, could prompt Gov. Gray Davis to declare a moratorium.

A spokesman for Davis, however, said the governor is firmly against a moratorium.

“The governor has said a moratorium is not necessary, because death sentences in California are automatically appealed,” said Davis aide Byron Tucker. “Nine people have been executed in California since the death penalty was reinstated, and no cases have been reversed. That’s an exceptional track record.”

USC scholar Jeffe sees another hurdle: the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. “Right now, no political body is going to wade into social issues it doesn’t need to. They are too busy with fiscal and service issues,” she said.