Majority of D.A.s in state (California) oppose Obama nominee (Goodwin Liu) [View All]

[alp227]

Forty-two of California's 58 county district attorneys are opposing President Obama's nomination of Goodwin Liu to the federal appeals court in San Francisco, saying they believe the UC Berkeley law professor is hostile to the death penalty.

In a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the prosecutors attacked a paper Liu coauthored in 2005 that criticized death penalty decisions by Samuel Alito, then President George W. Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court.

The paper did not state its authors' views of the death penalty, but said Alito's opinions "show a disturbing tendency to tolerate serious errors in capital proceedings." The district attorneys said Liu's critique shows he would vote as a judge to overturn nearly every death sentence.

The document "demonstrates beyond serious question that his views on criminal law, capital punishment and the role of the federal courts in second-guessing state decisions are fully aligned" with an appeals court that is "far out of the judicial mainstream," the prosecutors said.

They included two Bay Area district attorneys, Ed Berberian of Marin County and David Paulson of Solano County.

In response, the White House released a letter from the state's prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, saying Liu would "further the cause of justice and follow the law and Constitution for all parties ... including crime victims and peace officers."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/30/BA8U1CN27K.DTL

So just because Mr. Liu criticized capital punishment, a lot of DAs panic? :wtf: At least even the prison guards union knows better.

I do know damn well that one of the 16 DAs who supports Liu is San Francisco's Kamala Harris, who ran for DA promising never to do death sentences.