Death Penalty in Warren case that may be dismissed but Tree gets a pass, what is Paul's thought process?

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/a-capital-question/Content?oid=2516452

This is a link to an article by Thad Greenson. In it he says "With little attention or fanfare, Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos is seeking the death penalty against Jason Anthony Warren in a case scheduled to go to trial in May. If a jury ultimately convicts and condemns Warren, it would be the first time Humboldt has sent someone to death row in nearly 25 years".

Channel 3 Lashay Wesley and myself were the only 2 in the courtroom this week when oral arguments were postponed on a 995 Motion in which the defense is seeking to dismiss 3 counts. Next week is when the oral arguments are scheduled to happen, and so when I read this, I wondered what is Paul thinking? And why the death penalty in this case now when he declined it in the double murder case of Bodhi Tree.

I thought Paul was releasing information to select media, just Thad,  and he was just quietly making this decision.  I would contact him but he and I have had a conversation on bloggers and journalists and who gets to be on the media list which would be an entertaining and enlightening post, but I digress.

I kinda called Thad and Paul out on a comment on Rose's blog which I asked Rose to remove after Thad contacted me via email. I like Thad and respect him as I do other local reporters. They also trust me. With Thad's permission, I am summarizing his email to me. I appreciate him reaching out to me privately and explaining he trusted me and also trusted I would share what is pertinent. This is information between him and me as a colleague, which by the way is a high compliment from a fellow reporter I admire. Some of it is just conversation between him and me not relevant to this post so I will not reprint the email.

Thad explained that the decision to seek the death penalty against Warren was not a recent one and that Paul made that call a while ago, Thad thinks possibly even before the preliminary hearing. There is a gag order in the case and Thad mentioned since not all reporters can show up for every hearing, not all of us may know about the gag order and because of that restriction no one knows when Paul made this decision. This is one of the reasons I go to every hearing in a case I cover. 

Thad wanted to stress Paul did not release this information to him. Thad explained to me how he obtained the information. I too have obtained that information in a similar manner. A reporter covering a court beat and one knowledgeable about court procedures and legal research can find this information in a proper way without talking to any attorney connected with the case. 

There is a death penalty policy that the Humboldt County District Attorney's office has and due to space, Thad could not include it in the story. While he shared it with me, I did not get it from Paul nor does it have a date so Paul how do you come to these decisions involving a person's life? 

See if Paul would bother talking to me when I am the only one covering the court case on a regular basis or be transparent to give me information that other reporters have, I would not need to wonder. In fact, if there are policies on Cruz Waivers and Death Penalty, post it on the District Attorney website instead of all those favorable press releases so the public has access to it, not just me.