Pamela Price is not staying silent.
In her first extended public comments since being recalled earlier this year, the former Alameda County District Attorney issued a sharp rebuke of her successor, appointed DA Ursula Jones-Dixon, accusing her of deliberately dismantling reforms aimed at correcting decades of racial bias and prosecutorial misconduct in Alameda County’s capital cases.
Price, who was elected on a platform of progressive reform and transparency, said the new district attorney has not only abandoned that mission but is actively trying to erase it.
“Oh my God. It’s just outrageous,” Price said in an interview this week with the Vanguard. “It’s so disingenuous. I can’t sit back and let her tell people these lies. If you’re lying about this or that, you’re probably lying about some other stuff that we can’t even see.”
At the center of Price’s concern is a stunning reversal by Jones-Dixon in a series of death penalty cases that had been identified for resentencing after a federal judge found widespread constitutional violations, including racially biased jury selection.
Under Price’s administration, Alameda County began reviewing 35 capital cases in compliance with the court’s directive. In 20 of those cases, the court approved resentencing motions after the DA’s office recommended reductions based on the documented misconduct.
Ten additional cases remained in process when Price left office in January. Jones-Dixon has since withdrawn the recommendations and moved to reinstate the death sentences, arguing that Price’s administration mishandled the reviews.
Price called that decision not only legally dubious, but ethically compromised. “She was part of the office when a lot of this misconduct happened. She benefited from it,” Price said, referring to Jones-Dixon’s career trajectory, which included her appointment as a judge under the support of former DAs Tom Orloff and Nancy O’Malley—both of whom led the office during the period of prosecutorial abuse identified by the federal courts. “She’s part of the old guard,” Price said. “And now she’s trying to cover for them.”
Even more troubling, Price said, is the decision to appoint Catherine Horner Cobal to lead the motions withdrawing resentencing offers. Horner Cobal is the daughter of retired Judge Jeffrey Horner, who presided over at least four of the death penalty cases currently under scrutiny, including that of Ernest Dykes, whose conviction triggered the original federal review. “That’s a clear conflict of interest,” Price said. “Her father sat on these cases. Now she’s trying to reverse the recommendations that were put forward to address the violations in those same cases. It’s outrageous.”
According to Price, the cases in question—including those of Ernest Dykes, Delaney Marks, Michael Martinez, and Graylin Winbush—were carefully reviewed over months by a dedicated unit in her office that included prosecutors, victim advocates, and external organizations.
“We followed the law. We followed the evidence. We followed the order of a federal court. And we didn’t do it in secret—we worked with victims’ families, with trauma counselors, and with experienced attorneys. Now they’re pretending none of that happened.”
The Alameda County District Attorney Accountability Table, a coalition of civil rights groups and justice advocates, released a statement supporting Price’s concerns and calling on DA Jones-Dixon to provide a public explanation for her actions.
“This reversal of resentencing death penalty cases from Alameda County DA Dickson undermines community trust and sends a dangerous message: racism in the DA’s office will continue to reign,” the statement read. “DA Dickson is choosing to ignore racial justice and is allowing a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution to continue. This isn’t just about death row—it’s about whether the law applies equally to all people, or whether racism will go unchecked in the name of ‘tough on crime’ politics.”
The group said the new DA’s actions amount to a betrayal of the court’s directive and the legislative intent behind recent criminal justice reforms.
“Alameda County voters sent Pamela Price to office to make these changes,” said a spokesperson for the DA Accountability Table. “We cannot go back to an era when prosecutors suppressed evidence and targeted Black and Jewish jurors for exclusion. These resentencing cases were the bare minimum response to decades of misconduct—and now they’re being undone by someone with direct ties to the old regime.”
They further questioned how Jones-Dixon’s administration plans to comply with the federal court order.
“What is the plan to address these known violations? Because what we’ve seen so far is silence, stonewalling, and political retaliation,” the group said.
Data cited by the Accountability Table shows that while Black residents make up only 10 percent of Alameda County’s population, they comprise 71 percent of individuals sentenced to life without parole.
The resentencing effort, initiated under a federal court order following the disclosure of prosecutorial notes showing deliberate exclusion of Black and Jewish jurors, was intended to address that imbalance.
Price’s office successfully resentenced 20 individuals before being halted by Jones-Dixon.
“It’s not just a policy change—it’s a retreat into the racist, punitive status quo that has devastated Black and brown communities for decades in Alameda County,” said Alyssa Moore of All of Us or None during the press conference.
During her remarks, Price emphasized that the death penalty resentencing process was not an act of leniency but of legal necessity.
“We are not talking about people being released tomorrow,” she said. “We are talking about whether they should continue to live under death sentences that were imposed in trials that violated their constitutional rights. That’s not progressive. That’s basic law.”
Price also said that every case was vetted carefully, with prosecutors weighing aggravating and mitigating factors, and outreach being conducted to victims’ families. Her administration worked with Broken by Violence, a nonprofit focused on trauma support, to provide counseling services and contact survivors. “We created a hotline. We sent letters. We talked to families. To say we ignored victims is a lie,” she said.
In the Dykes case, Price’s office had discovered handwritten notes that directly supported allegations of racial and religious bias during jury selection. That evidence was central to the federal court’s directive to re-examine past capital cases in Alameda County. Price’s team negotiated case-by-case resolutions that were then reviewed and approved by the court.
“There was a process,” she said. “This wasn’t done recklessly. And the same legal team that handled those cases also successfully secured 20 resentencings. It’s not like they suddenly didn’t know what they were doing.”
When asked why the new DA might be reversing these decisions, Price was blunt.
“It’s revenge,” she said. “It’s not about justice. It’s not about safety. It’s about undoing everything Pamela Price did. That’s her only agenda.”
She described Jones-Dixon’s administration as politically motivated and deeply aligned with the prosecutorial culture that fostered the misconduct in the first place. “It’s very Trumpian,” she said. “Undo everything your predecessor did—facts be damned.”
Price also raised concerns about judicial independence, noting that new judges assigned to the pending cases may feel pressure to side with the district attorney. “Normally, judges do what the DA wants,” she said. “So when the DA is trying to withdraw these offers, it puts these cases in jeopardy, even when the evidence of misconduct is clear.”
While Price ruled out a return to elected office—“I’m not planning to run,” she said—she made clear that she intends to remain active in the fight for criminal justice reform. She’s launching a new initiative, Next Chance Solutions, to support people reentering society after incarceration. “While this DA rebuilds the pipeline to prison, we’re building a pathway home,” she said.
Price also pointed to the silence surrounding the issue. “For months, I’ve been hearing about the terminations in the office, about the climate of fear, about what’s happening behind closed doors—and none of it is being reported,” she said. “The public has a right to know.”
In her final remarks, Price framed the rollback of the resentencing cases not just as a policy dispute, but as a test of Alameda County’s moral and constitutional commitments. “Are we going to uphold the law? Or are we going to let personal vendettas and political expediency define justice?” she said. “Because what’s happening now is not justice. It’s erasure.”
