Pamela Price
District attorney of Alameda County, California
Assumed office
January 2, 2023 (2023-01-02)
Preceded byNancy E. O'Malley
Personal details
Born1957
Dayton, Ohio
EducationYale University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (JD)
ProfessionLawyer

Pamela Price is an American lawyer and, since January 2023, the District Attorney for Alameda County, California. She is the first African-American Woman to ever serve as Alameda County's DA.[1] She supports progressive legislative reforms and ran on police accountability and rehabilitation.[1] She is facing a recall effort.[2][3]

Bibliography

Price was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1957.[4] She experienced the Ohio juvenile justice and foster care system.[5] She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1978 from Yale University. She received a Juris Doctor from the UC Berkeley School of Law in 1982.[4][6] She worked as defence and civil rights attorney and she started her own firm in 1991 specializing in employment litigation and representing victims of retaliation, wrongful termination, sexual assaults, and discrimination.[6]

Alameda County district attorney

In 2018, she ran for Mayor of Oakland and lost against Libby Schaaf with 13.1% of the votes. In 2018 she also ran in the nonpartisan primary for Alameda County District Attorney and lost against incumbent Nancy O'Malley with 42.2% of the votes. She ran on a policy of police accountability.

She won the 2022 Alameda County District Attorney election on November 8, 2022 against Terry Wiley with 53.15% of the votes. She is the first Black woman to serve as Alameda County District Attorney, the first person to be elected District Attorney without already being appointed to the office, and[4] the first person to take the role without having worked in the District Attorney Office.[6] She ran on a platform centered on rehabilitation and addressing instances of police misconduct.[7] She pledged to terminate the utilization of the death penalty, cease the practice of charging individuals under the age of 18 as adults, establish a unit dedicated to ensuring the integrity of convictions, and enhance services for victims of gun violence.[2] She started her tenure in January 2023.[6]

In her first month in office, Price reopened eight cases involving law enforcement-involved death.[7] Also in March 2023, Price distributed a preliminary version of updated sentencing guidelines within her department. These policies align with her commitment to reduce or eliminate incarceration, particularly for young offenders, as outlined in one of the ten points of her campaign platform aimed at curbing the over-criminalization of youth.[4]

In March 2023, Price said she favored accountability for the gang members who killed a 23-month-old bystander named Jasper Wu when they were having a shootout in November 2021.[8] Price kept the murder charges with a gang enhancement. If convicted, the defendants may face more than one hundred years in prison.[9]

On April 14, 2023, a "special directive" issued by the district attorney's office established a guideline whereby prosecutors are encouraged to refrain from seeking elevated sentences for serious offenses if the imposition of such sentences would lead to a disproportionate "racial impact".[10]

Recall efforts

In August 2023, some family members and friends of crime victims filed the intent to recall paperwork to begin the legal process of trying to recall Price from office, as they claimed that she is too soft on crime.[11] In October, a group called SAFE (Save Alameda For Everyone) launched a campaign to collect 73,195 valid signatures required by the county charter to put the recall to a vote.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 Sharpe, Joshua (2022-11-19). "Civil rights attorney Pamela Price makes history as Alameda County's next district attorney". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  2. 1 2 Lacy, Akela (2023-07-12). "Campaign to Recall Oakland Reform District Attorney Gets Rolling". The Intercept. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  3. ↑ Phillips, Justin (2023-11-16). "If facts aren't driving the Pamela Price recall then what is?". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Wilson, Scott (2023-03-20). "Oakland's DA urges more lenient sentences even amid fears over crime". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  5. ↑ "Meet the DA". Office of the Alameda County District Attorney. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Cohen, Andrew (2023-02-27). "Alameda County's First Black DA, Pamela Price '82, Details Her Path to Making History — and Change". Berkeley Law News. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  7. 1 2 Fawcett, Eliza; Arango, Tim (2023-06-08). "Liberal Prosecutors Are Revisiting Police Killings but Charging Few Officers So Far". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  8. ↑ I-Team obtains Alameda Co. DA's email; lesser sentence for Jasper Wu's alleged killers?, ABC7 News, March 30, 2023
  9. ↑ Li, Han (2023-06-08). "Jasper Wu Killing: What's Next in Toddler Murder Case". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
  10. ↑ Price, Pamla (2023-04-14). "A statement from Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Y. Price on SPECIAL DIRECTIVE 23-01". Office of the Alameda County District Attorney. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  11. ↑ Effort to recall Alameda County DA Pamela Price takes major step forward, CBS Bay Area, August 15, 2023
  12. ↑ Curry, Ruan (2023-10-15). "Recall group for Alameda Co. DA Pamela Price begins collecting signatures ahead of election year". ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
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