CALIFORNIA Officer's slaying sparks death penalty debate

The police force is pressuring a prosecutor opposed to capital punishment.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Campaigning on an anti-capital punishment platform was an easy call for Kamala Harris when she ran for district attorney in famously liberal San Francisco.
Sticking to that position three months after she got the job has been a lot harder.
After the first slaying of an on-duty police officer here in 10 years, Harris has faced mounting pressure to reverse her decision not to seek the death penalty against the officer's accused killer.
Union speaks out
The San Francisco Police Officers Association called on Harris to recuse herself and her office from the case and to turn it over to California's attorney general.
The move followed a two-hour meeting Wednesday that the union organized after angry rank-and-file officers started circulating a petition urging Harris to reconsider and planned a march on her office.
"The murder of Officer Isaac Espinoza has taken our members to a new level of frustration, emotion, anger, and I think at this point what we are asking is that the district attorney of San Francisco do her job," union president Gary Delegnas said, surrounded by about 200 grim-faced officers, those in uniform still wearing black mourning bands over their badges.
Delegnas said the union had the backing of Police Chief Heather Fong, who refused to comment after the meeting.
Prosecutor unwavering
The district attorney refused to be swayed.
"I have a responsibility to uphold the law, enforce the law and prosecute crimes and intend to do it in this tragic case," she said.
Harris, citing her moral opposition to capital punishment as well as what she viewed as the unlikely odds of obtaining a death sentence in San Francisco, announced she would pursue a sentence of life without parole for David Hill, 21, less than three days after Espinoza, 29, was gunned down with an assault rifle April 10. Hill has pleaded not guilty.
The backlash erupted at Espinoza's funeral last Friday, when U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein drew a standing ovation with her statement that a police officer's death is "the special circumstance called for by the death penalty law." Outside the church, Feinstein said she never would have endorsed Harris had she known her opposition to the death penalty extended to officers.