A federal judge has ordered Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s office to review all death penalty cases over possible prosecutorial misconduct.
The directive came after evidence of potential bias emerged in the case of Earnest Dykes, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 for the murder of a 9-year-old boy and attempted murder of his grandmother during a robbery. The review found that prosecutors may have excluded Black and Jewish jurors, raising concerns about a systemic issue involving death penalty cases in the 1980s and 90s.
District Attorney Price has launched an investigation into all 35 of the county’s existing death penalty cases, stating, ‘When you intentionally exclude people based on their race, religion, gender, or any protected category, it violates the Constitution.’
The investigation will seek to determine if other instances of bias occurred. If so, Price’s office will collaborate with the federal judge to determine appropriate remedies.
It’s noteworthy that while the death penalty remains legal in California, the state has not executed anyone since 2006. Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2019, and there are currently 640 inmates on death row in California, the highest number in the nation.
