JUSTICE!

California Prosecutors Caught Using Slurs to Describe Potential Jurors

Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price started reviewing 35 death penalty cases in April, uncovering a trove of bigoted comments and decisions made by prosecutors.

A California district attorney reviewing death penalty cases from the 1990s has uncovered a pattern of racist, homophobic, antisemitic and sexist comments made by prosecutors in their juror selection notes. Pamela Price, the district attorney for Alameda County in northern California, began reviewing 35 cases in which defendants received capital punishment at the direction of U.S. District Court judge Vince Chhabria in April. The review unearthed comments by prosecutors calling potential jurors who were rejected names such as “possible fagot [sic],” “Jewish,” “short, fat, troll,” and much more, according to the Guardian. Chhiabra said that Alameda County prosecutors were “automatically excluding Jewish and African American jurors in death penalty cases.” The comments span from 1977 to as recently as 2010, when one potential juror was referred to as a “dyke.” Despite the new revelations, Price has yet to resentence any of the affected cases. It remains unclear whether she plans to do so.