Edmund
Gerald "Pat" Brown was born April 21, 1905, at San
Francisco, California and graduated from San Francisco
Law School with an L. L. B. degree in 1927. In January
1944 he took office as the District Attorney for
the city and county of San Francisco. In January
1959, he took office as Governor for the State of
California. Governor Brown suggested that the State
of California repeal the Death Penalty. When that
didn't pass the legislature, he recommended that
they suspend it for three and one half years as
an experiment in humanitarianism. It was turned
down also. Brown vowed to not give up the fight
to abolish the death penalty. Brown commuted some
sentences which infuriated law enforcement officials
and they continued to bicker over this as long as
he was in office. As Governor of California, he
was on the Board of Regents of the University of
California. The University of California had as
a part of its Chemistry and Physics Department,
the testing and inventions of Livermore and Los
Alamos Laboratories. These Laboratories were assigned
to them by the Atomic Energy Commission. This necessitated
an Atomic Energy Commission Investigation of Governor
Brown's background. On his background questionnaire,
he listed his membership in the National Lawyers
Guild in 1946. During the time he was the District
Attorney of San Francisco, he subscribed to the
"People's World" for six months. The People's World
was the newspaper of the Communist Party. He opposed
the deportation of Harry Bridges in 1945. Brown
stated that Bridges was a labor leader on the Waterfront,
and if he were deported, the workers would strike
and slow down the work and hinder the war efforts.
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