Death penalty resentencing: East Bay DAs’ stances on execution

With Santa Clara County’s district attorney starting a move to resentence condemned inmates — giving them terms of life in prison rather than a death penalty that the state has not carried out since 2006 — other Bay Area counties have their own stances on executions as punishment.

Both East Bay counties have district attorneys with vocal opposition to the death penalty.

Contra Costa’s Diana Becton has pledged not to seek death, and Alameda County’s Pamela Price publicly opposes filing special circumstances that carry death or life without parole.

In a sign of how much the political landscape has changed, Becton’s predecessor flaunted his support of the death penalty during his successful 2010 campaign for DA. Price’s predecessor, Nancy O’Malley, supported capital punishment but had not sought it for years by the end of her term.

Neither DA has yet signaled they’ll reduce all their existing death penalty convictions en masse.