Entries tagged with “Pamela Price”
Jun 29, 2026
Two Former Death-Sentenced Californians Seek Compensation Over Official Misconduct
Two former California death-sentenced prisoners, Ernest Dykes and Curtis Ervin, have filed lawsuits against Alameda County, accusing the District Attorney’s office of “set[ting] out to rig the juries” in their capital cases. Both men were released from prison after their death sentences were reduced because of the discovery of unconstitutional prosecutorial misconduct during each of their jury selections in the 1990s. The lawsuits allege that the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office…
Death Row
Aug 25, 2025
State Spotlight: California Death Row Shrinks Sharply in 2024, Driven by the Resentencing of At Least 45 People to Life Sentences or Less
This week we are featuring some articles from the first part of 2025 that we think are worth another look. We’ll be back with new articles next week. This article originally ran on February 11, 2025. When California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on executions in 2019, he said that the state’s “death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.” He explained that the death penalty “has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, Black and brown, or can’t afford…
Mar 28, 2025
“He Looks a Little Like the Defendant”: A Closer Look at the History of Racial Bias in Jury Selection
As closing arguments of his trial began in Johnston County, North Carolina, Hasson Bacote watched as Assistant District Attorney Gregory Butler urged the jury to sentence him to death. Mr. Bacote, a Black man, had been convicted of fatally shooting 18-year-old Anthony Surles during a robbery when Mr. Bacote was just 21 years old. Mr. Bacote admitted he had fired a single shot out of a trailer, but said he did not know that he hit anyone. “Hasson Bacote is a thug: cold-blooded and without…
Death Row
Feb 11, 2025
State Spotlight: California Death Row Shrinks Sharply in 2024, Driven by the Resentencing of At Least 45 People to Life Sentences or Less
When California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on executions in 2019, he said that the state’s “death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.” He explained that the death penalty “has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, Black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation…[while providing] no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent.” In 2024, California courts agreed that execution was not the appropriate punishment for at least 45…
Issues
May 09, 2024
Articles of Interest: Los Angeles Times Editorial Board Says Systemic Racism in California Death Penalty Is Just One of Many Reasons for Abolition
In a May 7, 2024 editorial, the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board cites the deeply engrained racial disparities in the California death penalty system and how those facts led them to conclude that “even if the state could perform painless and anxiety-free executions and racial biases were eliminated, the death penalty would still be wrong.” “Black defendants were 4.6 to 8.7 times more likely to be sentenced to death than other defendants facing similar charges” the Board notes, and “Latinos…
Issues
Religion
,Apr 26, 2024
Federal Judge Orders Alameda County District Attorney to Review 35 Capital Cases Following Disclosure of Prosecutorial Misconduct in Jury Selection
On April 22, 2024, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced that her office was ordered by a federal judge to review 35 death penalty convictions after the disclosure of evidence that several prosecutors intentionally excluded Black and Jewish people from serving on a capital murder trial in 1995. In a press conference, DA Price indicated that her office discovered the handwritten notes of former prosecutors that include discriminatory jury selection tactics, suggesting “serious…