DA: Murderer to be freed as death penalty review expands
Update: The DA said three people on death row had already been resentenced. But it turns out the deals still need to go before a judge.
A murderer who spent decades on death row is now set for release due to alleged prosecutorial misconduct in jury selection, DA Pamela Price announced Tuesday.
Ernest Dykes had been convicted of murdering 9-year-old Lance Clark while robbing the boy's 70-year-old grandmother, Bernice Clark, in Oakland in 1993. His conviction was repeatedly upheld on appeal.
But, earlier this year, Price announced that Black and Jewish jurors had apparently been excluded from hearing the case.
The alleged misconduct was identified during a probe, driven in part by a federal judge, into 35 Alameda County death penalty cases dating back to the 1980s.
Scroll down for an update to the story.
On Tuesday, Price said Dykes, who is now 51, would be released next year on parole, the result of a recent settlement agreement before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria.
In a press conference at her office Tuesday, Price said her team had now identified 56 death penalty cases dating back to 1978 as part of its ongoing analysis.
In 40 of those cases, she said, jury selection materials were "missing."
"There may well have been an effort to sanitize the files," Price said. "We intend to look into that, hopefully with the assistance of the California attorney general's office."
Read more about Pamela Price on The Scanner.
Price said the materials had gone missing following a 2005 review of alleged misconduct related to jury selection in Alameda County where Black, Jewish and gay individuals appeared to have been "tracked and excluded" from death penalty cases.
(In 2005, the state Supreme Court reviewed those claims but rejected them, KQED reported earlier this year.)
"Jurors called to jury service have a right to serve without regard to their religion, their race, their national origin, or their sexual orientation," Price said Tuesday. "And the victims who rely upon prosecutors as guardians of the Constitution, as the light-bearers of the law, as ministers of justice, are entitled to be able to rely upon us to do the right thing."
Emilie Raguso
DA Price also shared brief updates in relation to two other Alameda County death penalty cases, including that of Keith Thomas, who was convicted in 1997 of the kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of an East Bay woman.
In that case, Price said "racist imagery and stereotyping" used by the prosecutor during the trial had "essentially undermined the integrity of this conviction."
Price said Thomas's original death penalty sentence had been converted to 23 years to life.
He has already served 31 years, she added, so the parole board will now review the case and decide whether he should be released.
Price also said Gregory Tate would be coming off death row due to changes in state law and that he would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
"We are not conceding any wrongdoing … with respect to the case of Mr. Tate," she said.
Alameda County death penalty review continues
Price said her office had identified at least seven prosecutors who had been linked to the ongoing death penalty misconduct probe: one current Alameda County prosecutor who was recently tapped to become a judge, one former prosecutor who is already on the bench, and five who are no longer with the office.
"The people elected me to reform this office, to participate in the reform of a criminal justice system that had gone wrong, that had gone bad, that had hurt many people," Price said. "I am here for that reason and I intend to do just that."
She continued: "As we uncover misconduct, we will expose it, we will address it and we will hold people accountable."
Update, 6 p.m. In a statement about the death penalty cases released shortly before 6 p.m., the DA's office said it had filed "motions for resentencing" that would be considered Wednesday, July 17, in the case of Keith Thomas; Aug. 13 in the case of Ernest Dykes; and Aug. 16 in the case of Gregory Tate.
During its press conference Tuesday afternoon, the DA's office and DA Price presented all of the resentencing decisions as having been made already.
The headline has been updated in response to the written announcement.
Watch the full press conference on X. (The Scanner also reviewed the event remotely.)
— AlCo DA's Office (@AlamedaCountyDA) July 16, 2024
