“When prosecutors commit misconduct, they violate their obligation to victims and survivors and undermine the integrity of cases, which puts public safety at risk and erodes trust in the criminal legal system.”
– Cristine Soto DeBerry,
Executive Director, Prosecutors Alliance
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is asking the Alameda County Superior Court to resentence three men on death row in California.
Her office filed motions requesting the resentencing hearings, and the first one is Wednesday. The other two are scheduled for August.
The resentencing motions are the first results of an ongoing review of death penalty cases Price’s office announced in April. Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court of Northern California ordered the review following allegations that the Alameda County District Attorney’s office had a practice of unlawfully excluding Black and Jewish jurors from death penalty trials.
The allegations were first raised in 2005. In June, The Guardian reported that some defense attorneys had received files that led to the discovery of homophobic notes.
“We are now following the law,” Price said at a press conference on Tuesday. “We will not have an office where people are not held accountable for violating their ethics or engaging in prosecutorial misconduct.”…