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ALLEGHENY COUNY – Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala released an updated policy regarding plea deals on Monday, after allegations his office did not offer plea deals to a lawyer based on the race.
Zappala has emailed all of his deputy attorneys barring them from offering plea deals for attorney Milton Raiford’s clients. Raiford reportedly said there was what he called systemic racism in the local criminal justice system, including the prosecutors office.
Zappala said the policy was to avoid further allegations of racism.
Updated guidelines released on Monday say that if an attorney or defendant is concerned that the office is treating the defendant differently with a plea deal because of race, gender, etc., the deputy district attorney will investigate. . If necessary, the deputy district attorney can also assist in the investigation and offer comments.
But in the updated guidelines, nothing was mentioned about Raiford.
I saw it. I haven’t seen my name anywhere in there and haven’t seen any revocation of the policy specifically introduced against me. These things are not mentioned, Raiford said. Power has gone to his head. This courthouse functioned like a crowd. Everyone has to kiss his ring or everyone rings to coexist with him.
Several people have called for an investigation into the prosecutors’ office, including the ACLU, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, and the Pittsburgh Black Lawyers Alliance.
I think this note raises more questions than answers. It is not clear that Mr. Raiford is off the hook, that the prosecutor’s office will not discriminate against him and his clients, said Vic Walczak, chief legal officer for the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
Raiford said he had not heard from Zappala.
You can’t apologize for doing something heinous and keep pushing it through with words. I’m not the judge of Steve Zappala, he said.
The prosecutor’s office did not return a request for comment on Tuesday.
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