In letter, state representatives demand Zappala rescind policy prohibiting plea offers to Black attorney

Eleven members of Allegheny County’s state House delegation sent a letter to District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. on Friday condemning his policy of refusing to make plea offers to a Black attorney who criticized his office as being “systematically racist.”

The two-page document demands that the policy be rescinded.

“District attorneys are among the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system,” the letter said. “That power can be used to pursue justice or to deny it. Your policy and your actions have put you squarely in the latter category. We demand that you take corrective action immediately.”

State Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Brighton Heights, authored the letter, which she said was sent on Friday.

Ten other Democratic representatives signed it, too: Austin Davis, Lindsey Williams, Sara Innamorato, Summer Lee, Dan Deasy, Jessica Benham, Nick Pisciottano, Brandon Markosek, Ed Gainey and Jake Wheatley.

Kinkead said she wrote the letter to outline concrete steps Zappala could take to restore trust in his office.

On May 13, Black defense attorney Milton Raiford appeared for a plea hearing before Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani. At the conclusion of the case, Raiford asked if he could talk to the judge.

According to several pages of the hearing transcript, Raiford talked about his disappointment that the social justice movement sweeping the country had not taken hold within the county court system.

During his comments, Raiford, in response to a question from the judge, said that he believed that people of color get less favorable plea offers in Allegheny County. He also called the district attorney’s office “systematically racist.”

Five days later, Zappala issued an email to the deputy DAs in his office in which he wrote: “Effective immediately, in all matters involving Attorney Milton Raiford, no plea offers are to be made. The cases may proceed on the information as filed, whether by general plea, non-jury or jury trial. Withdrawal of any charges must be approved by the front office.”

On Wednesday, the Tribune-Review published a story about Zappala’s email, which prompted immediate backlash from criminal justice advocates and politicians in Allegheny County. Many of them demanded an investigation, others demanded Zappala’s resignation.

On Thursday, Zappala released a statement on the issue, as well as the contents of the email in question and the transcript of Raiford’s comments in Mariani’s courtroom. In it, he said that he issued the policy against Raiford “to ensure that this office makes consistent, evidence-based decisions, and avoids false claims of racism.”

On Friday, a spokesman for Zappala had no additional comment on the letter and referred to the DA’s earlier statement.

Kinkead, who is also an attorney, was among the first to criticize Zappala’s policy prohibiting plea offers to Raiford.

In the letter, she begins by saying that the representatives condemn Zappala’s “decision to put personal animus over professional duty,” and said that his policy is “abhorrent” and “unethical” and “flies in the face of your role as a minister of justice and upends the fundamental right to free speech enshrined in the First Amendment.

“It further raises questions about how your office has treated clients of other attorneys with whom you have personally disagreed.”

Although the 11 signators on the letter differed on what consequence should befall Zappala for the policy, they all agreed on the immediate measures the longtime DA should take.

They include that he: 1) rescind the policy against Raiford; 2) formally apologize to him, as well as the citizens of Allegheny County; and 3) open the DA’s office to a special prosecutor to review the cases of Raiford and any other defense attorneys who may have agreed with his comments.

“Myriad studies have demonstrated systemic and systematic racism within our criminal justice system — including policing and profiling, prosecution of petty crimes, the war on drugs, juries and jury selection, sentencing and death penalty application, school suspension and the school-to-prison pipeline, bail, pretrial detention, commutations and pardons, incarceration and solitary confinement, in addition to judicial and prosecutorial discretion,” Kinkead wrote.