The death penalty should be subject to the highest level of scrutiny by the DA’s Office, a jury, and the courts and should only be used in the rarest of cases. However, there are such extreme cases – for example, where police officers are assassinated in cold blood, where mass shootings at a school occur, where terrorists kill hundreds through a bombing — when the death penalty should be on the table for consideration. I am well aware of the troubled history of the death penalty, of those who have later been vindicated, and of the philosophical issues concerning its implementation. However, as District Attorney, I take an oath to uphold all the laws, not just the laws I like. As long as the death penalty is the law of California – having prevailed on the ballot twice in the last 12 years – I will honor my oath and subject it to the highest level of review, considering its charging in the most heinous of cases to which it applies.