Ramos in February 2008 (before the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice) defended the practice of most prosecutors in the state to keep secret the processes they use in choosing which defendants will face the death penalty, despite some researchers have suggested that such secrecy leads to a disproportionate number of death sentences for minorities and the poor.
Ramos, however, said exposing the thinking of district attorneys would allow defense lawyers to unfairly glimpse (Blogger Bob's comment: Is there a scenario of a "fair glimpse"?) prosecution strategies about cases. He assured the commission that district attorneys throughout the state use their discretion in a responsible manner (Blogger Bob's comment--isn't this hearsay??). "The ultimate decision we can make is taking somebody's life, and we are very careful about that," he said.
Blogger Bob's comments: The criteria should be objective and public and if not, there needs to be some objective oversight process to assure than class, race, ethnicity, national origin, economic ability to retain competent outside counsel, association, speech content, religion, gender, sexual orientation and gender are not factors in deciding for or against the death penalty.
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