As San Francisco DA Kamala Harris Chose To Not Seek The Death Penalty Against A Cop Killer

California Citizens Long Supported the Death Penalty But Harris Placed Her Personal Views Ahead Of Californians -- and Senator Diane Feinstein

San Francisco Police Officer Isaac Espinoza — End of Watch April 10, 2004.

Officer Espinoza was married and had a three year old daughter.

Officer Espinoza was 29.

Kamala Harris was elected to the office of District Attorney for San Francisco in the December 2003 run-off between her and her boss, then DA Terrance Hallinan. In the non-partisan November 2003 election for the office, Hallinan had finished first in a 3-candidate field with 36%; Harris second with 34%; and Bill Fazio third with 30%.

Bill Fazio was a career prosecutor in the DA’s Office, and one of its most successful homicide prosecutors. He had run against Hallinan in 1999, and a poll conducted by the union representing San Francisco Police Officers showed Fazio with 98% support over Hallinan.

Harris was an almost complete unknown. She had been a prosecutor in the SF DA’s office for only two years before quitting to join the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. But Willie Brown was the Mayor of San Francisco, and he brought his political machine to the race to support her.

As for Hallinan, it would be difficult to imagine a guy who could have only 2% support among SFPD officers in 1999, and then make matters worse for himself over the next four years. On July 19, 2003, four months before the election, three off-duy SF Police Officers were involved in a brawl with two men outside a bar in San Francisco over possession of some take-out fajitas, hence the name given to the affair — “Fajitagate.” One of the three officers was Alex Fagan Jr., whose father, Alex Fagan Sr., had recently been promoted to Assistant Police Chief of the SFPD. In the weeks that followed, Hallinan would gleefully preside over the issuance of grand jury indictments of the entire command structure of the SFPD for obstructing the investigation into the brawl involving Off. Fagan Jr. That indictment included San Francisco’s first ever African-American Police Chief, the entirely non-controversial Earl Sanders. Sanders had led a legal effort many years earlier to force the hiring of a greater number of minorities by the San Francisco Police Department. Sanders was something of a civil rights “hero” in San Francisco because of his history in that regard.

Three months after the indictments, Kamala Harris — who no one ever heard off — beat Hallinan in the run-off election 56.5% to 43.5%. With the nearly complete support of the San Francisco law enforcement establishment — by virtue of not being Hallinan — Harris assumed office in January 2004.

Four months later SFPD Office Isaac Espinoza was gunned-down by San Fransisco gang member David Hill using an AK-47. Espinoza’s partner, Officer Barry Parker, was wounded in the attack.

Officer Espinoza and his partner were patrolling the Bayview District in an unmarked car and wearing civilian clothes. Bayview had long been an area of San Francisco with a heavy African-American population, lower socio-economic development, and a constant gang problem.