Criminal justice advocates and elected officials are calling for the resignation of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. after an email he sent banning plea offers to a Black attorney who called his office “systematically racist” became public.

Additionally, an Allegheny County judge is now refusing to accept plea deals from his office

The longtime prosecutor has not offered any public response since the Tribune-Review on Wednesday published excerpts of the May 18 email sent to the supervisors in his office. Zappala declined to comment on that story.

In that email, obtained by the Tribune-Review, Zappala said that no plea offers were to be made to attorney Milton Raiford, who five days earlier had criticized the criminal justice system — and the DA’s office specifically — as being “systematically racist” during a court proceeding before Judge Anthony Mariani.

After learning about the email, Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman said he rejected three plea agreements and would continue to do so until Zappala rescinded the policy against Raiford.

The policy, the judge said, blatantly treats defendants differently based on who represents them.

“The defendant isn’t being treated for his crime but based on who he selects as his lawyer,” Cashman said. “That’s not the way it’s supposed to be done.

“It has nothing to do with their guilt or innocence.”

Cashman said he spoke with First Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Spangler and explained his position to her. She told him, Cashman said, that the office was reviewing Raiford’s previous cases to analyze how his clients had been treated.

If that’s the case, the judge asked her, then why isn’t the DA’s office also reviewing the cases of another Black attorney, Frank Walker, who agreed with Raiford’s statements that the system is racist.

“There’s something fundamentally wrong about that,” Cashman said.

In the conversation, Cashman said, he told Spangler the DA’s office should address the issue “without putting their trial lawyers in jeopardy with the disciplinary board.”

Cashman said that Spangler told him she would take his concerns to Zappala.

“I can’t dictate the policy of that office. I can only express what I think is a good one or a bad one,” Cashman said. “I think it’s a bad one.”

In the meantime, other criminal justice advocates are demanding an investigation into Zappala’s actions.

“It is unethical for a DA to order a blanket ban on offering plea deals to an individual attorney’s clients. It’s also a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Shuford said that district attorneys are among the most powerful people in the criminal justice system, who have the power to choose charges and file them.

“The allegation that DA Zappala instructed his subordinates to outright refuse to offer plea deals to clients of an attorney who criticized the DA’s office underscores that vast power,” Shuford said. “Indeed, retaliating against an attorney who complains about racism in the DA’s office by refusing to offer plea agreements to his clients is itself arguably evidence of bias.”

The ACLU is seeking an investigation by both the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania attorney general.

Allegheny County Bar Association President Elizabeth L. Hughes said that the organization is disheartened by Zappala’s email and said that it undermines defendants’ right to justice.

“Should these instructions from District Attorney Zappala be carried out, this would be unethical and retaliatory to criminal defendants based on ideological differences between the District Attorney and their defense counsel,” Hughes said. “Such a response by the District Attorney only operates to promote unequal treatment in the criminal justice system.”

Hughes said that the bar association “stands against any action that unfairly weighs the scales of justice or deprives any individual of rights guaranteed to all of us under the Constitution.”

David A. Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies race and the criminal justice system, said that he would not be surprised to see an investigation by the state Disciplinary Board.

“The DA’s office has stepped outside the ethical lines,” he said. “It does smack of a misuse of power.”

Plea negotiations are an everyday, almost universal, part of the court system, Harris said, with more than 90% of cases getting resolved that way.

Taking away Raiford’s ability to properly represent his clients over critical comments is wrong, he continued.

“Public officials have to expect and accept a certain amount of criticism,” he said. “This is not really a new conversation — either here in Allegheny County or nationally.”

University of Pittsburgh law professor Jerry Dickinson called Zappala’s actions “deeply troubling” and said the district attorney should resign.

Zappala’s actions could have a chilling effect not only on Raiford but other attorneys who might be fearful of exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech because of possible retribution, said Dickinson, who is running for a U.S. House seat in the 2022 election.

“Not only do we see the unethical dynamic playing out, and the unconstitutional aspect of it, there’s flagrant abuse of power that completely undermines the public trust,” he said. “It mandates the resignation.”

He must resign immediately.

My statement: pic.twitter.com/v6d5S2ksbu

— Jerry Dickinson (@JerrySDickinson) June 2, 2021

State Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Brighton Heights, agreed.

And if not, at minimum, she said, he should take “specific, concrete steps to rehabilitate the trust he has lost.”

Among them, rescinding the policy against Raiford; formally apologizing to Raiford, as well as the residents of Allegheny County; and opening his office to review by a special prosecutor of Raiford’s cases, as well as any other attorneys with concerns about how their clients were treated.

“DA Zappala has betrayed his oath of office by pursuing unequal justice based on personal grudges rather than the facts of individual cases,” said Kinkead, who is also an attorney. “Prosecutors have a special duty to pursue justice, not just victory. They are supposed to act impartially. As a lawyer bound by the same code of conduct as the DA, I am appalled and offended.”

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