Three Alameda County death row inmates re-sentenced after misconduct investigation

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Tuesday afternoon that the sentences for three people sentenced to death have been revised.

Ernest Dykes, convicted of killing a 9-year-old boy in 1993, is expected to be released from prison next year with a two-year suspended sentence. Keith Thomas, sentenced to death in 1997, will receive a prison sentence of 23 to life. But because he has served 31 years of that, Thomas will be eligible for parole. And Gregory Tate, convicted in 1993, will receive a life sentence without parole.

In April, a U.S. district judge ordered Price to review all 35 death sentences from the late 1970s in which the inmates were still alive. The sentences were handed down in Alameda County. The inmates were still alive. The order came after the court, reviewing Dykes’ case, found that prosecutors had excluded blacks and Jews from the jury.

Price said the investigation found a number of instances of prosecutorial misconduct. Thomas’ case, she said, relied on racist imagery and stereotypes used by District Attorney James Anderson that have since been banned by newer California laws such as the Racial Justice Act of 2020.

Price, however, said prosecutors had not admitted any wrongdoing in Tate’s case and that the reversal of the conviction was based on other factors in his “sentencing structure.”

Seven people close to the district attorney’s office are suspected of misconduct, Price said, including current Assistant District Attorney Michael Nieto. Nieto was nominated by Gov. Gavin Newsom in June to a position on the Contra Costa County Superior Court and has a supervisor who reviews his cases while investigations are ongoing, Price said.

The other six people are no longer employed by the prosecutor’s office, but one was a sitting judge, Price said.

During the two days of hearings in district court, prosecutors reviewed many cases, Price said, but “quite a few” remain open. Those may be more difficult to review, however, because in more than 70% of cases, Price said, there are minimal or no notes on jury selection. Prosecutors are considering the possibility that previous prosecutors “whitewashed” those files and covered up wrongdoing, Price said.

“We now follow the law,” Price said. “And we’re not going to have an office where people aren’t held accountable when they violate their ethics or engage in prosecutorial misconduct.”

Price, on behalf of the prosecution, apologized to the victims of the Dykes and Thomas cases for the prosecutor’s misconduct and also to the larger black, Jewish and LGBTQ communities for denying them the opportunity to serve as jurors.

“Jurors who are called to jury duty have the right to serve regardless of their religion, race, national origin or sexual orientation,” she said. “And the victims who rely on prosecutors as guardians of the Constitution, as light-bringers of the law and as ministers of justice have the right to trust that we will do the right thing.”

Price’s investigation comes at an uncertain time for her and other Oakland leaders. She and Mayor Sheng Thao will both face a recall in November after both came under fire for the city’s crime rates. And in February, Governor Gavin Newsom dispatched prosecutors to help Oakland pursue convictions. to abruptly withdraw his offer last weekand said Price’s office had been uncooperative.

“The people elected me to reform this office. To help reform the criminal justice system that has gone wrong, that has become bad, that has hurt a lot of people,” Price said. “That’s why I’m here, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”