European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine by Bob Egelko associated Pressa bumper sticker spoiled in California Sheds some Light on Rose Bird s problem with the Public free it nigh stalker. Elect Rose Birdil says in act. Richard Ramirez has not yet gone to rial in the los Angeles night Slater Hillings much loss been convicted or sentenced to death and Nonerl i he convicted murderer1whose deals sentences Rose gird has Volod to overturn joined in All but three cases by a majority of the state supreme court has gone Lite or. Likely logo free anytime soon no Mailer attic chief i is ice of California has become a Symbol to opponents of soil criminal coddling judges of Legal technicalities thai set criminals Iron and of liberalism in a conservative Era her inability to shed that symbolism is what has made it virtually impossible for Bird to Dent her overwhelming Delicio in opinion polls for the nov 4 election two Days after her 50th birthday no matter How she replies to opponents charges on the deals Penally Lack of prior judicial experience and political Bias the first woman in the Santa Clara county Public defender s of Lico. The i isl woman in a California governor s Cabinet and the first and Only woman Over appointed Lihe state sup Emo court appears Likely to become the first Justice of Oil her gender removed by the voters in the 50 years of nonpartisan retention elections a los angles times poll published recently said 60 percent of the 1,594 registered votes surveyed would Vole no on Bird s to confirmation 31 percent would Vole yes and 9 percent were undecided probably even a skillful professionally run Campaign could nol have saved bid s Job. But that will remain a mystery. The Chiel Justice has hired and fired several political consultant and now is conducting her own $1 million Campaign. She even writes her own 30-second television commercials which amount to fief lectures on the court s Rote. I should t go to some political manipulator some political consultant and have them go to a pollster and Lind out what Emo Honal Button to push and then trick them into voting for me she says the statement is Village Bird uncompromising apparently unconcerned with the consequences. Her approach to the election has led her into several avoidable political missteps notably a much criticized attack on the . Attorney general As Little Eddie Meese and left potential supporters Rusl rated by their exclusion from the Campaign and fearful of a landslide Hal would sweep away other justices to bar opponents Bird s defeat would mean the removal of the slate s major obstacle to the deals Penally and other expressions of the people s will. To Bird it would mean Hal future justices would be expected to Kneel to the governor Kneel to the special  to California in would mean the end of a remarkable and turbulent Chapler in its Legal and political history. Rose Bird who warts to overturn the death sentence in California it expected to lose re election. She has become a Symbol of be rams in a conservative Enose Bird California s Liberal chief Justice fights for her Job it started m 1977 when gov. Edmund a own or. Picked Bird his agriculture and services Secretary and former Campaign Driver and Volunteer to succeed the retiring Donald Wright As chief Justice Bird had Haver been a judge having spent most of her 10-year Legal career As a Public defender. But thai was Lar from unique the court s most renowned chief Justice Roger Traynor and such u.3 supreme court justices As Earl Warren and William Rehnquist were not judges before their appointments. There were outcries from the farm Industry which had clashed with Bird Over her Banning of the Short handled Hoe and her work on the Sale Arm labor Law. And from Many prosecutors. But Bird survived a difficult confirmation fight. She took some actions reminiscent of Brown Selling the court s limousine turning Down a pay raise and moving stale judicial Council meetings from resorts to big cities she also made court hiring More competitive assigned trial judges 1o fill temporary vacancies on appellate courts and broke the Power of a vol Oran Slat Hal had been administering the Cotrit system for years Whilo bringing in Hei own group of trusted aides. Many of those moves were bitterly resented Wii Hwi Thi Ciri ii Lem 3 response that May have been aggravated by Bud s habitual bluntness and by her Elahve youth 40 and her status As a woman in a Iradi Honal men s club on a court that had Long worked in obscurity and won re election routinely Bird quickly became Well known and con arc Hersial. She barely won Velar retention in 1978, with a record Low 51 7 percent majority and immediately plunged into new turmoil by ordering Public hearings to investigate allegations Hal rulings had been improperly delayed to help he Oloc Lson. The investigation Lound no wrongdoing bul revelations of Pelly feuds and mistrust proved a major embarrassment to the court Evon some admirers of Bird say the episode seriously damaged the court s elite reputation part of the prestige of any court is a combination of its majesty and is mystery said John Oakley a former clerk for Wright who now leaches Law at the University of California at Davis and supports Bird s Rele lion i think people Learned More than they Ever wanted to know about the inner Workings of the court at a Lime when they were the least collegial in recent times " expressions of hostility toward her have been unrelenting death throats have prompted her to move her Molher out of the Home they shared in Palo Alto cancel a recent speech and Aller her routine in going to work her concurring opinion in a rape Cage produced tellers suggesting she should be raped a Man whose daughter had been killed a Case that has never reached the supreme court Send Bird a Public letter saying her Alli Lude toward the deals penalty could be changed by a single Bullet words that grew More ominous when the same Man entered a Sari Francisco courtroom and shot and wounded the Man charged with murdering his daughter. On another level after Bird s third operation for breast cancer in 197b, Robert Kane a stale appeals court Justice who has since retired gave two speeches calling for removal of the cancer on the court. Bui most of the opposition to Bird is focused on her record As a judge. She is clearly the current court s most Liberal member though probably no More Liberal than justices of the previous iwo decades like Traynor or Mathew Tobriner neither of whom was Ever seriously challenged in an election. And to Many of her opponents Only one aspect of Bird s record matters the death Penally. She has voted to reverse All 60 death sentences she has considered though she likes to Point out that Wright her predecessor reversed about Iso death sentences in two rulings declaring death penalty Laws unconstitutional Bird says she would Vole to uphold a deals sentence if she concluded the trial was Lair and the Law was constitutional. Opponents say she would never reach that conclusion sunday november 2, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 13