Death Penalty Debate Becomes Local: Where do You Stand? (POLL)

District Attorney Jeff Reisig wrote an op-ed in the Woodland Daily Democrat Wednesday along with the sister of slain Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Diaz, whose killer, Marco Topete, has been sentenced to death.

The DA’s letter, titled “Sometimes seeking justice demands the death penalty,” was published just one day before a Davis Vanguard-sponsored dinner will take place in Woodland. The Vanguard event is called “.”

Vanguard writer David Greenwald immediately published a rebuttal on Wednesday titled, “DA Reisig Unleashes Unwarranted Attack on ACLU & Death Penalty Opponents on Eve of Vanguard Event.”

How do you feel about the death penalty? Share in the poll below. 

The Vanguard’s event in Woodland Thursday night will attract “death penalty opponents from across the state,” according to Greewald's story. You can buy tickets here. 

With the death penalty currently being discussed in two popular local publications and a November ballot initiative that could eliminate the death penalty, we’d like to know where Davis and Yolo County residents stand on the issue.

Share your answer in the poll below and explain your stance in the comments. First, here’s a bit from each opposing piece that was published Wednesday:

Jeff Reisig’s Op-Ed

[Deputy] Diaz had attempted to contact Topete for violating parole by drinking and driving with his infant in his car. Topete led Diaz on a 100 mile-per-hour chase before abandoning his car and baby on a dark dirt road in rural Yolo County. Instead of pursuing Topete on foot, Diaz stayed with Topete's abandoned baby. 

Minutes later, Topete, who was lying in wait behind the corner of a building with an assault weapon, opened fire while Diaz had his back to him. In October 2011, a jury convicted Topete of murder with multiple special circumstances and sentenced him to death… (Full Article)

Davis Vanguard’s Rebuttal 

It's interesting, to say the least, that the DA, who has been quiet on this issue since the jury recommended death in the Topete case and Judge Richardson confirmed it, suddenly has an Op-Ed piece in the Woodland paper this morning with Guadalupe Diaz, the sister of slain Officer Tony Diaz. 

What Marco Topete did that day on June 15, 2008, is unimaginably horrific.  Deputy Diaz' family has endured immense suffering, but that suffering cannot change the fact that the death penalty is broken, it is a huge drain on state resources… (Full Article)

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