Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said her office is reviewing dozens of death penalty cases over possible prosecutorial misconduct.
At a press conference in front of a federal courthouse in San Francisco, Price said she’s investigating all 35 of the county’s existing death penalty cases for possible evidence that Black and Jewish people were excluded from juries because of their race.
“The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a trial by an impartial jury of one’s peers,” Price said. “Any practice by prosecutors to eliminate potential jurors because of their race betrays that core pillar of the criminal justice system.”
Price said her office was ordered to look into the cases by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria after potential wrongdoing was found during the resentencing settlement of Ernest Dykes.
Dykes was convicted in 1993 of the attempted murder of Bernice Clark and the murder of her 9-year-old grandson Lance Clark during an attempted robbery and sentenced to death in 1995, according to Price’s office.
The cases go back as far as 1977 and it’s unclear how long the review process will take or how many prosecutors might have blocked jurors because of their race.
“It will take a long time,” Price said. “We don’t know how long. Each case we will have to review individually.”
Some of the existing evidence includes hand-written notes about specific people who were left off of juries that identify them as Black or Jewish, she said.
“Additionally, we have the transcripts of some of the ways in which the jurors were questioned,” Price said. “It’s not limited to one or two prosecutors. It’s a variety of prosecutors.”
17 comments
Someone trying to advance their political career… “look at all the wrongs committed during the prosecution of these ‘insert type of human’ and people from vulnerable communities. I will fix this, look at me, I’m ready to move up the political stair case. If your one side you must support me otherwise your a ‘insert 2-3 ‘ism, ‘ists, ‘bics” ! See how easy it is.
Pam Price, the DA in Alameda, will soon be removed from offic via She knows her time is
Pam Price, the DA in Alameda, will soon be removed from office via recall special election. She knows her time is limited so she is going to cause as much trouble as possible evidently.
She is a soft on crime DA, and the reason there are so many repeat offenders. She promised not to charge minors as adults, and to end the death penalty. She changed the sentencing guidelines to reduce the prison population, and will reduce criminal charges, so a defendant will only get probation, or she will dismiss the charges altogether. Not only that, but she also wants to defund the police.
this should be done by DOJ; not an elected official’s office where the official is facing a recall; actually doesn’t matter if facing a recall.
Should be done by other than the DA’s Office
I’m typically against recalls unless there is obvious malfeasance. But DA Price has got to go. Alameda County can do so much better.
Why are you against recalls? That’s a weird position. If someone is failing, they should be removed immediately. Why would you think they deserve to continue to to fail. You do know public servants serve us right. They aren’t royalty.
That said biden should be removed.
She has found herself a political use for Jewish people! How low can you go.
Have absolutely no proof of this,
but is it possible it’s payback for the recall ?
Could end up costing Alameda county tens of millions of dollars.
Sounds like the one with the racial bias is Pam Price.
This is stupid. Just like Scott Peterson trying to fake his innocence.
Stop wasting taxpayers money on ignorance
A total waste of taxpayer money. I doubt all blacks and Jews are against the death penalty. To say that someone of any race votes exactly the same is absurd.
I hope Alameda County voters see this as the desperate, self-serving sham that it is and vote this grossly incompetent woman OUT of office.
If only she were this aggressive about prosecuting actual crimes, like freeway shootings of innocent children by gang members.
What I’m getting from this is that reviewing old cases for possible issues is more important than prosecuting criminals today.
They only care about their own. She threw “Jewish” in there, but we know what race of prisoner she’s really worried about.
American communists are all the same
Comments are closed.