When Kamala Harris was running to be San Francisco’s district attorney, she said she would never pursue the death penalty.
But then a case came before her that was so deserving, that her commitment to her campaign promise blindsided a grieving family and even gained condemnation from former prominent Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein.
On April 10, 2004, San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza, 29, was called to work overtime on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Espinoza, a plainclothes officer, looked forward to attending Easter services the next day with his wife, Renata, and their 3-year-old daughter.
During his night shift, however, the Espinozas&#8217; lives would be forever changed.
Espinoza and his partner saw a man walking down the street in the Bayview District of San Francisco, and it looked like he was hiding a weapon, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/08/politics/kamala-harris-death-penalty-decisions/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in 2019, while Harris was running for president. Espinoza exited his unmarked police car and approached the man, later identified as 21-year-old David Hill, saying he was a police officer. Hill turned to face him, reached for his AK-47 rifle, and opened fire, the San Francisco Examiner <a href="https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/gang-member-guilty-of-officer-s-murder/article_0ffd1f81-386a-5cb4-ba7f-826ebff0b185.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“I had just talked to Isaac maybe about 30 to 40 minutes before,” Renata told CNN. “He had told me to stay up because he was coming home.”
Another police officer took her to the hospital where Espinoza had been taken after the altercation, reassuring the frightened mother that her husband was “fine” and “alive.”
But when they arrived at the hospital, none of the other police officers could look at Renata, and the captain handed her Espinoza’s star.
“I remember I walked into this room and he still had blood here,” she told CNN, tearing up. “He was laying there with his eyes closed and I saw the blood here. And I walk over to him I just said, ‘wake up.’”
Espinoza’s death was the first time a San Francisco police officer had been killed in the line of duty in at least 10 years, CNN reported.
Gary Delagnes, then-president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, told CNN he received a call from Harris “a day or two” after Espinoza’s death. A day later, Harris spoke during a news conference regarding the murder.
“In San Francisco, it is the will, I believe, of a majority of people that the most severe crimes be met with the most severe consequences,” Harris said at that news conference. “And that life without the possibility of parole is a severe consequence.”
Delagnes was at the event as well, standing quietly next to Harris.
“I’m standing there and I’m going, ‘Oh my God,’” he told CNN. “The kid’s not even in the ground yet. You’re thinking to yourself, OK, is she sorry that this kid died or is this just a political opportunity? Is this just an opportunity for her to double down on the fact she’s not going to pursue the death penalty?”
He also told the outlet that he didn’t know Harris was going to take the death penalty off the table when he agreed to appear alongside her at the event.
Harris’ team justified the decision by saying San Francisco juries rarely, if ever, sentenced criminals to death, and reminded the media that Hill, the shooter, was only 21 years old.
Renata, Espinoza’s widow, told CNN that she remembered the press conference as the first time she heard Harris would not pursue the death penalty against the man who killed her husband.
“She did not call me,” Renata told the outlet. “I don’t understand why she went on camera to say that without talking to the family. It’s like, you can’t even wait till he’s buried?”
“I felt like she had just taken something from us,” she added. “She had just taken justice from us. From Isaac. She was only thinking of herself. I couldn’t understand why. I was in disbelief that she had gone on and already made her decision to not seek the death penalty for my husband.”
At Espinoza’s funeral, Harris was rebuked by none other than then-Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who at the time supported the death penalty. Feinstein would later switch her position on the issue, but at the time, she took a moment during Espinoza’s eulogy to condemn Harris’ decision.
“This is not only the definition of tragedy, it’s the special circumstance called for by the death penalty law,” she said, diverting from her prepared remarks but not naming Harris.
The hundreds of officers attending the funeral stood up and clapped after Feinstein’s remark.
Even after the funeral, Harris didn’t call Renata. So, Renata wrote her a letter. Espinoza’s older sister, Regina, expected to hear from the DA.
“She never called,” Regina told CNN. “There was no consideration for Renata, my niece, my parents, me, or the officers. It was as if she didn’t care.”
Espinoza’s family didn’t understand why Harris wasn’t pursuing the death penalty since California law allowed for “special circumstances,” including the murder of a police officer. And, while San Francisco juries rarely agreed to the death penalty, it had been decades since an accused cop killer was put on trial.
Nearly two weeks after Espinoza’s death, Harris – who still hadn’t called his family – wrote <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Justice-for-Officer-Espinoza-peace-for-the-city-2789147.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an opinion article</a> published in the San Francisco Chronicle again defending her choice not to seek the death penalty, saying the “district attorney is charged with seeking justice, not vengeance.”
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The family then reached out to the assistant DA to try to meet with Harris.
“I can’t remember exactly what she said,” Espinoza’s sister Regina told CNN. “But I remember there was no connection. We let her know how we felt. We didn’t walk away feeling better.”
“She never came over and said, ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’ Never. Nothing.” Espinoza’s widow, Renata, added. “I would have been able to hear her explanation directly and then we could have talked about it.”
Renata told CNN she never received any compassion from Harris in the years following, during Hill’s trial and conviction.
During her short-lived campaign for president in 2019, Harris wouldn’t tell reporters whether she ever personally spoke to anyone from the Espinoza family.
“We reached out to the family. We always did. We did in that case as well and offered all of the support that our office was able to give the family,” Harris said at the time.
While <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/diaz/article/Harris-and-the-death-penalty-years-of-13693075.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speaking</a> to the San Francisco Chronicle in May 2019, Harris said the part of the case she thinks about the most was whether she should have waited until after Espinoza’s funeral to announce she wasn’t seeking the death penalty.
“Maybe it was a political novice mistake. I don’t know. Maybe it was the right thing to do but you got to take the heat for it,” she said at the time.
Espinoza’s murderer, David Hill, is &#8220;grateful&#8221; for Harris’ decision.
“It took a lot of courage and integrity to make a campaign promise like that – and then keep it,” Hill told CNN. “I’m forever grateful.”

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As A Prosecutor, Kamala Harris Refused To Seek The Death Penalty For A Gang Member Who Murdered A Cop