OAKLAND — Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price must decide in the next two months whether to retry or release a local death row inmate of 33 years amid revelations of prosecutorial misconduct during his trial in the early 1990s.
Price was given the ultimatum this month after the California Attorney General’s Office moved to toss the 1991 murder conviction of Curtis Lee Ervin, citing concerns that an Alameda County prosecutor wrongly sought to keep Black residents from the jury. A judge agreed with the attorney general’s office on Aug. 1, leaving Price 60 days to make a decision on whether Ervin should be set free or prosecuted once more.
The move comes amid a sprawling review of all death penalty cases originating in the county for signs of racist and bigoted conduct by prosecutors after a U.S. District Judge found “strong evidence” earlier this year of systemic racism and antisemitism hiding in plain sight. In one instance, a prosecutor described a prospective juror as a “short, fat, troll,” and noted that others were Black or Jewish and wrote that one supported affirmative action.
Price subsequently announced plans to review the cases of 35 locals still living on death row for signs of racism, bigotry or misconduct — calling it an “ethical obligation” that was beyond “left or right or any kind of politics.” At least one man has already been removed from death row, and hearings are scheduled later this month for a judge to consider removing two other inmates from death row.
At a press conference Wednesday, Price said she agreed with the attorney general’s decision to seek to have Ervin’s conviction thrown out. He was originally sentenced to die in 1991 stemming from a murder-for-hire case five years earlier of a mother of four from El Sobrante who was killed in Tilden Park.
“It is clear that the prosecution of this case was very problematic,” Price said. “And there’s evidence of serious prosecutorial misconduct, and a lack of accountability in this office at the time.”
Still, Ervin’s lawyer expressed confusion and disappointment shortly after the press conference that Price had not immediately moved to release her client.
“This case was tainted from the outset,” said the attorney, Pamala Sayasane. “It should not be retried. But if Pam Price decides to do so, we are ready for that fight.”
