Passalacqua hasn't pursued death penalty

<p>In seven years as Sonoma County district attorney, Stephan Passalacqua has not sought the death penalty.</p><p>Execution is a punishment reserved for “the worst of the worst,” said Passalacqua, a former prosecutor who was elected the county’s top law enforcement officer in 2002.</p><p>Four men are on San Quentin State Prison’s Death Row for murders committed in Sonoma County, convicted between 1990 and 1997.</p><p>Passalacqua said his office has prosecuted about a dozen homicides during his tenure involving “special circumstance” that carry the option of the death penalty. It is the district attorney’s decision whether to pursue the death penalty in such cases. </p><p>A state commission on criminal justice said last year that invoking capital punishment adds $500,000 to the cost of a murder trial, noting that two studies put the difference at more than $1million.</p><p>“Financial issues do not play a factor” in his decisions, Passalacqua said.</p><p>Prosecutors consult with the victim’s family and defense attorney before making a decision, he said.</p><p>His office is currently weighing whether to seek death sentences against six Santa Rosa men accused of shooting a witness, Vutha Au, 24, near Jenner in March 2008.</p><p>California’s long delay between conviction and execution — an average of 25 years, the commission said — is “disheartening,” Passalacqua said. </p><p>“It does not bring finality to a victim’s family,” he said.</p><p>Passalacqua, whose second term expires next year, declined to say whether he personally supports the death penalty. “That’s a decision the voters of California would have to make,” he said.</p><p>California adopted its current death penalty law in 1978 with a 71 percent vote in favor of Proposition 7.</p><p>Two-thirds of Californians support the death penalty, according to a poll by a UC Santa Cruz psychology professor released last month. But the support is eroding. It was 79 percent in favor 20 years ago, professor Craig Haney said.</p><p>Capital punishment is no longer a “third rail” of state politics, an untouchable like Proposition 13’s property tax relief, said Barbara O’Connor, professor of communications at California State University, Sacramento.</p><p>Presented as a response to chronic state budget deficits and cuts schools, parks and social services, abolition of the death penalty might resonate with voters, she said.</p><p>Replacing the death penalty with lifetime incarceration would save about $126 million a year, the commission said.</p><p>Putting money first “takes the religion out of it,” O’Connor said, describing the conventional death penalty debate as “a clash of absolutes: You either believe in it or you don’t.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.</p>