County DA Candidates Appeal to Voter’s Sense of Justice

Pamela Price

Terry Wiley

Alameda County District Attorney candidates Pamela Price and Terry Wiley squared off in a September 19 debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

Voters are facing the first open election, without an incumbent, for the first time in decades, after Nancy O’Malley decided not to seek re-election. In fact, according to candidate Price, since 1939 district attorneys in Alameda County have all attained the office by initially being appointed following a resignation, and then got to run for re-election as an incumbent.

The election is also notable in that the two candidates are both African American, running to head an office that has sometimes been criticized by civil rights and community groups seeking a more fair criminal justice system.

 Wiley, in his opening statement, stressed his experience within the District Attorney’s Office, where he is now Chief Deputy District Attorney. Price stressed her work as a civil rights and women’s rights attorney, including victories in several landmark cases.

Price is familiar with campaigning for the DA position. She unsuccessfully challenged O’Malley for the position four years ago.

Both candidates pledged, if elected, to bring a social justice perspective into the work of the district attorney’s office. They differed in their emphasis on how punitive to be toward current crimes, while both vowed to fight the social causes of crime in several possible ways.

“I am a drum major for justice,” Price said in her opening statement.

She added, “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.”

Wiley opened with, “We have a district attorney’s office that needs new leadership. It has to be leadership that is about safety and justice. My experience as chief Assistant District Attorney has enabled me to personally understand the strengths weaknesses and potential of the office.”

Wiley added that he had the organizational and budget experience to head a nearly $100 million county agency.

Price gave her top three priorities if elected as running a transparent office that offers integrity and accountability, help for the mentally ill and addicted, and reducing gun violence partly by interventions with young people.

Wiley’s top three priorities would be fighting a “sense of lawlessness” by targeting intervention with the 2,000 individuals he said commit 70 percent of the violent and serious crimes in the county, a big increase in drug and mental health diversions, and addressing the victimization of Asian-Americans.

That targeting involves showing individuals evidence against them and offering them non-crime alternatives if they stop offending, but years in prison if they don’t.

 Price called for never charging juveniles as adults, for never seeking the death penalty, and for seeking diversions for non-violent crimes. She urged prosecuting cases fairly and ethically and changing the office’s relations with law enforcement.

Price said of the office, “We are not part of law enforcement agencies. We are lawyers, we are bound by the State bar rules and by the codes of ethics. We have a duty to seek justice as independent actors.”