- “The issues in Alameda County mirror ongoing debates elsewhere.” – Pamela Price
Former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price release a new podcast episode this week, A Culture of Cheating and Lies, highlighting the systemic misconduct in capital cases and the ongoing constitutional crisis in California’s justice system.
Price said that during her tenure in 2024, her team uncovered and exposed a 30-year history of prosecutorial misconduct in Alameda County’s handling of death penalty cases. She described the discovery as evidence of “a culture of cheating and lies” in the office under the leadership of District Attorneys Tom Orloff, Nancy O’Malley and John J. Meehan.
The findings included juror notes showing that Black and Jewish jurors were systematically targeted for removal from death penalty juries. “The juror notes discovered in the files of Alameda County prosecutors clearly show that Black and Jewish jurors were targeted to be kicked off of death penalty juries,” Price said.
Despite this record, newly-elected District Attorney Ursula Jones-Dickson halted Price’s reform efforts in early 2025. Before she was even sworn in, while still a sitting judge, Jones-Dickson stopped the process of reviewing cases. She has since argued that there is no remedy for the documented constitutional violations and is fighting to preserve the death penalty in 14 pending resentencing cases.
Defense attorneys Brian Pomerantz and Ann-Kathryn Tria, who were appointed as special settlement counsel in ten Alameda County capital cases, were recognized in May 2025 with the Daily Journal’s prestigious CLAY Award for their work in exposing the misconduct and pressing for relief.
The issues in Alameda County mirror ongoing debates elsewhere. In Los Angeles, the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez has forced a reckoning over past injustices. The brothers were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989, but in 2023 presented new evidence of sexual abuse by their father, including a letter Erik wrote at age 17.
Former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced in October 2024 that both men would be resentenced to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole. After Gascón’s recall, his successor attempted to reverse the decision, but in May 2025 the court upheld Gascón’s recommendations.
Price draws connections between these cases and the broader constitutional crisis now unfolding under President Donald Trump. Since January 2025, Trump has invoked executive power to reshape constitutional norms under the banner of Project 2025.
“Since the early days of the civil rights movement when Charles Hamilton Houston challenged Jim Crow, the United States has had a rich history in constitutional law and a major impact on the world in sharing our constitutional principles,” Price said. She added that the legacies of Houston, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and Justice Thurgood Marshall should serve as the benchmark for assessing “the current state of fascism in America and any disregard for the Constitution by local prosecutors.”
