executive director of california death penalty focus, where she works to abolish the death penalty. she did preside as the warden over several executions. natasha is the death penalty policy director for the american civil liberties union of northern california. she previously worked as a deputy public defender in alameda county, and was a staff attorney with the california task force on criminal instructions. she is also working on the effort to abolish the death penalty in california and pursuing the goal of reforming capital sentencing procedure. before we start with the first question, we have a short video. i have been told that this is a video from the former warden of the mississippi prison. it is clear that the execution will take place and something happens. they may not come out and say that they did this, but they will tell the victim i am sorry. and then they say, i did this. and i leaned down to whisper in his ear, and i thought i could reach them because i w
pursuing the goal of reforming capital sentencing procedure. before we start with the first question, we have a short video. i have been told that this is a video from the former warden of the mississippi prison. it is clear that the execution will take place and something happens. they may not come out and say that they did this, but they will tell the victim i am sorry. and then they say, i did this. and i leaned down to whisper in his ear, and i thought i could reach them because i wanted to make certain that he is at peace with themselves. i said it is not important for you to confess to this crime and is not important for anyone in this room. the only thing that is important is that you let your god know the truth. and he looked at me and he said i am at peace with my god. how will you be with yours? do you think that he did this? i do not know. this is terrible. the former governor has come to the conclusion that this boy was probably innocent. we are good
god know the truth. and he looked at me and he said i am at peace with my god. how will you be with yours? do you think that he did this? i do not know. this is terrible. the former governor has come to the conclusion that this boy was probably innocent. we are good friends and have remained so, and the one thing we talk about when we get together let s hope that he was guilty because the idea that he signed the warrant and i signed the execution on an innocent kid is something i would not want to have to deal with. it told us there was some kind of test what will i do? he said this? they tried this out? they just told me this morning that they would kill me. [unintelligible] more implications for my personal religious background. i remember when i executed him, when i left that night to go to the press conference, my wife was outside and is hit me all at once. every time the war and executes a prisoner, a piece of them dies as well. this leaves you feel
question, we have a short video. i have been told that this is a video from the former warden of the mississippi prison. it is clear that the execution will take place and something happens. they may not come out and say that they did this, but they will tell the victim i am sorry. and then they say, i did this. and i leaned down to whisper in his ear, and i thought i could reach them because i wanted to make certain that he is at peace with themselves. i said it is not important for you to confess to this crime and is not important for anyone in this room. the only thing that is important is that you let your god know the truth. and he looked at me and he said i am at peace with my god. how will you be with yours? do you think that he did this? i do not know. this is terrible. the former governor has come to the conclusion that this boy was probably innocent. we are good friends and have remained so, and the one thing we talk about when we get together let s
and he regretted the situation and he felt no ill will towards anyone. and he was thankful that the process was coming to a close. and he stated, that he was not guilty. innocent people go to death row and more of them die. this was enough to cause any government to stop and take stock of where this was regard to the death penalty. in regard to that question, it always comes down to the morality of it all. let s start with questions for the panelists. george, thank you for being here. i know that we welcome and appreciate you being here. the remarks that you made, this has caused concerns for many opponents of the death penalty to have celebrated the fact that san francisco moved away from this and did this rather convincingly, and i want to put the question out there. are you in favor of the death penalty? the answer, this is no. but it is important to recognize the role that i play. i think it would be inappropriate for me to say, categorically if you look at this,