I was a supporter and believer in the death penalty, but I’ve begun to see that this system doesn’t work and it isn’t functional. It costs an obscene amount of money.

Spending our tax dollars on actually preventing crimes, instead of pursuing death sentences after they’ve already been committed, will assure us we will have fewer victims.

California's death penalty is ... an incredibly costly penalty, and the money would be better spent keeping kids in school, keeping teachers and counselors in their schools and giving the juvenile justice system the resources it needs.

Spending our tax dollars on actually preventing crimes, instead of pursuing death sentences after they've already been committed, will assure us we will have fewer victims.

I was a supporter and believer in the death penalty, but I've begun to see that this system doesn't work and it isn't functional. It costs an obscene amount of money.

If you cannot have faith and trust in your police officer -- either as a citizen or as a juror or as a judge, as defense lawyers, as a district attorney -- then we do not have an acceptable, a viable criminal justice system,

Anytime you're bringing cases against police officers the jurors want a lot of credible evidence, ... In general, they don't like to convict policemen.

They want us to move fast -- 'come on here,' in essence, 'rubber stamp what we've done.' That's not our job. We have an independent role and responsibility.

It's like if you have a quilt and a thread is loose and they see that thread, they say, 'Forget the rest of the quilt. ... It's not guilty,'

they're ready to take it wherever it goes.