This story originally aired on the Pacifica Evening News on October 20, 2022. You can listen here, or read below.
EPM ON ALAMEDA COUNTY DA’S RACE
The Alameda County Attorney’s race will make history regardless of its outcome. Either Terry Wiley, the current chief assistant district attorney, or Pamela Price, a noted civil rights attorney, will become Alameda County’s first black District Attorney. They have different philosophies on how to do the job. Ellie Prickett-Morgan filed this report.
What does the DA do and Why Does it Matter?
Elisa Dellapiana is the legal director at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. She says that District attorney’s are some of the most powerful public servants in office because they set the policies for how laws are enforced.
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The district attorney has what might be the most power over who and how and how long. Californians are locked up behind bars in our county.
The DA gets to decide whether an offense will be charged as a crime, what punishment to ask for, and even what bail is appropriate. The district attorney also has the discretion to use alternative justice methods like mandated mental healthcare, rehabilitation, or other measures which can allow people to rebuild their lives.
Given the extent of the power a DA can wield, Dellapiana says voters should be mindful of what values candidates purport to have.
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As people are looking at the race, you know, and looking at the experience, you want to know what's this person's approach and experience been with our current criminal system? If the system seems good to them, that yes, we want to take his money and disproportionately take black and brown people from their families, keep them behind bars for the smallest offenses and look at jail and prison incarceration as the primary response to any harm in our communities. That's a very different approach, then, how do we redress harm? How do we look at actually preventing recidivism?
Who Are the Candidates?
Terry Wiley and Pamela Price have very different experiences within the legal profession. Wiley is currently an assistant District Attorney, with over 30 years of experience working in the Alameda County DA’s office. hOver his career Wiley has prosecuted felony and misdemeanor cases on behalf of the county. He was a also a part of the prosecution team that handled the “Oakland Rider’s” case in the early 2000s, which culminated in a settlement of $10.5 million for 119 police brutality survivors in Oakland.
Within the DA’s office Wiley has headed multiple departments including the Juvenile Division, Recruiting and Attorney Development, and Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Wiley touted his experience at a candidates forum held by the League of Women Voters.
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I've spent a career in the prosecutor's office 32 years, I've been part of the budget process, and understanding how to put forth a $98 million budget. There are a lot of moving parts that you have to have some experience as a prosecutor to effectively run the district attorney's office.
Top priorities for Wiley include public safety and protecting vulnerable communities. He specifically has prioritized addressing anti-Asian hate — and expanding drug and mental health diversions for people who commit small property crimes. Wiley says as District Attorney he plans to focus on prosecuting repeat offenders, who he says drive the majority of crime in Alameda county.
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As the District Attorney, you are the number one law enforcement officer, and the safety of the community has to be at the forefront of what you do as a district attorney. And I think that anyone on this call, cannot deny that, you know, today, there appears to be a feeling of lawlessness out there.
Pamela Price has an entirely different background. Price has spent most of her career as a criminal defense lawyer, and litigating civil rights and employment cases. She first ran for the Alameda DA’s seat in 2018 and lost, securing 42% of the vote. She is running again to reform the DA's office.
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I decided to run for this seat because for too long, prosecutors have forgotten that their mission is to protect public safety by advancing justice. Prosecutors have been at the heart of mass incarceration. My mission is to bring a new vision of transparency and equity and accountability to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and to create a criminal justice system that works for all of us and not just the wealthy and the powerful in this county.
Price calls herself a survivor of the Ohio juvenile justice system and foster care system who was able to get to Yale and eventually Berkeley law, in her words, “by the grace of God”.. Her top priorities are increasing transparency, reducing gun violence, and increasing available resources for individuals facing mental health and addiction crises.
Price has also not pulled punches when it comes to critiquing outgoing District Attorney Nancy O’Malley. Price said she’s frustrated with the racial inequities still present when it comes to juvenile felony arrests in Alameda county. As of 2021 10% of the children in Alameda county are black but 56% or juvenile felony arrests are of black children. Combined, black and Latino children in Alameda county make up 88% of juvenile felony arrests despite only making up 40% of the population.
Price has also been outspoken in terms of her advocacy for vulnerable communities. She criticizes District Attorney O’Malley’s handling of sex traficking in Oakland.
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The current da has a terrible history of prosecuting women who were trafficked whether they were under age or after they had aged out into the adult system, there's repetitive arrest, my position will be that we should not be prosecuting women, we should be trying to address the problem of sex trafficking, we continue to be one of the largest hubs in the country for sex trafficking. And we continue to criminalize women. And we continue to accept a rape culture that allows black and brown women to be raped and kidnapped and killed and exploited on the streets of Alameda County and particularly in Oakland.
Wiley and Price differ on the relationship they envision with local law enforcement. Wiley repeatedly emphasized the importance of inter-agency cooperation between the DA’s office and police.
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I represent balanced and experienced leadership. You may want to build a working partnership with local police departments, the newly elected sheriff and the Alameda courts and the Board of Supervisors, so we can provide effective law enforcement with fairness and justice.
Price pointed to the 47 Alameda County sheriff’s deputies who were temporarily relieved of duty for being “unsuitable” in late September this year. She wants to reform the relationship between local law enforcement and the DA’s office.
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I would change our relationship with local law enforcement so that we are clear that we are not part of law enforcement agencies that we are lawyers, that we are bound by the State Bar rules and by the codes of ethics, and that we have a duty to seek justice as independent actors, and that we expect officers not to we're not going to suborn perjury, we're not going to hide evidence that those days are over, that we're not going to participate in seeking convictions and enhancements just for the sake of our own personal career.
Last June the national media seized on the recall of progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Some analysts say it proves that even voters in the liberal Bay Area want a prosecutor who will be tougher on crime. When election day comes, observers will be watching to see which way Alameda County voters swing.
From Oakland for KPFA news, I’m Ellie Prickett-Morgan
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