BY: East Bay Times Editorial Board
The 32-year veteran of the office is the only candidate with the needed managerial and prosecutorial experience.
There are four candidates running to succeed retiring Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley in the June 7 election. Only one has the combined managerial and prosecutorial experience to lead the office of more than 400 lawyers, investigators and administrative staff members.
That’s Terry Wiley, a 32-year veteran of the office who worked his way from a legal research assistant to become the office’s first African American chief assistant district attorney.
Along the way, Wiley has held 21 different assignments, everything from misdemeanor trials to grisly felony murder cases; from overseeing juvenile court programs to prosecuting the cops in the notorious Riders police corruption trial; from leading the felony trial team in south county to recruitment director and head of human resources.
He has also served in appointed positions for the American Bar Association and state Bar of California, and he cofounded the Bay Area Black Prosecutors’ Association.
It’s hard to imagine a lawyer better prepared to take over the management of the District Attorney’s Office. But this election is also about leadership and a willingness to take on some of the tough issues of the day.
On that, Wiley, who was an outsider when he entered a White-male-dominated office at the start of his career, has always been concerned about racial disparities in the criminal justice system. He now proposes establishment of a crime strategies unit driven by data and intelligence rather than assumptions about race and geography.
He’s an advocate of diversion rather than criminal prosecution for low-level, non-violent offenses. When possible, youth and adults struggling with mental health, homelessness or drug addiction should be helped rather than incarcerated, he says.
Police should be given the resources needed to do their job, he says, but they should also expect that they’re going to be held to a high standard of behavior — which is where his office comes in when cops cross the legal line.
In short, Wiley is ready to step in and take over when O’Malley steps down after 14 years as the county’s top prosecutor.
The same cannot be said of his opponents. While Jimmie Wilson is well-regarded after 18 years as a deputy district attorney in the same office, his experience is primarily as a line prosecutor without managerial experience.
Seth Steward, currently chief of staff for Oakland City Councilman Dan Kalb, served as a prosecutor for about 13 years in San Francisco and Portland, Ore., but he, too, has minimal managerial experience. And Pamela Price, who has run her own civil rights litigation practice for three decades and is a well-known advocate for criminal justice reform has never prosecuted a case.
While those three candidates provide valuable perspectives, none of them is as well-prepared as Wiley, who is the best choice for the job.