Diana Becton, also known as Diana Becton Smith (born August 16, 1951), is a former trial

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

and is currently both the first

woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

and first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

to be elected

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

in the history of

Contra Costa County Contra Costa County (; ''Contra Costa'', Spanish language, Spanish for 'Opposite Coast') is a U.S. county, county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the ...

in California.

Education and early career

Becton attended

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

public schools. She received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

and a J.D. from

Golden Gate University School of Law Golden Gate University School of Law (informally referred to as GGU School of Law, GGU Law and Golden Gate Law) is the law school of Golden Gate University. Located in downtown San Francisco, California, Golden Gate Law is part of a California ...

. Becton worked as a Housing Finance & Development Supervisor for the city of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

from 1979 to 1987. Becton worked in private

practice Practice or practise may refer to: Education and learning * Practice (learning method), a method of learning by repetition * Phantom practice, phenomenon in which a person's abilities continue to improve, even without practicing * Practice-based ...

from 1987 to 1995. Becton was appointed to the

Contra Costa County Superior Court The Contra Costa County Superior Court, officially known as the Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa, is the California Superior Court with jurisdiction over Contra Costa County. It has four courthouses: Martinez, Pittsburg, Ric ...

in 1995 by then

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Pete Wilson Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Wilson previously served as a United S ...

. In 2011, she was elected by her colleagues to be the

presiding judge A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, the ...

, in charge of court administration. Becton has a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

from the

Pacific School of Religion The Pacific School of Religion (PSR) is a Private university, private Protestant seminary in Berkeley, California. It maintains Covenant (religion), covenantal relationships with the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the ...

. Becton was admitted to the

State Bar of California The State Bar of California is an administrative division of the Supreme Court of California which licenses attorneys and regulates the practice of law in California. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law ...

on December 11, 1986, and her attorney status is ''active''. She became a judge on November 28, 1995, where she served for 22 years on the Contra Costa County Superior Court.

Contra Costa County District Attorney

On June 14, 2017, Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson resigned in a plea deal with the

Attorney General of California The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" ( Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). ...

's office, relating to the improper use of campaign funds for personal expenditures. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors reviewed applications and chose Becton out of 12 applicants and five finalists to serve the remainder of the unexpired term. In her application, Becton said that she would pursue

criminal justice reform Criminal justice reform is the reform of criminal justice systems. Stated reasons for criminal justice reform include reducing crime statistics, racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, under-reporting, and ...

issues such as

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...

reform. Becton's supporters praised her community involvement and her work helping former prisoners integrate back into society. During the selection process, an anonymous letter accused Becton of

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

in her written application for the District Attorney position. Becton admitted to copying material and said that she did not intend to present the ideas as her original thoughts. Becton was sworn on September 18, 2017. Becton ran for election for a full term for District Attorney. In the June 2018

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

, Becton won a majority of the vote, winning the contest outright and pre-empting a November runoff.

The Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

noted that her election victory made her "the first African-American and first woman to be elected DA in the office’s roughly 160-year history". Becton's campaign received support from a consortium of social justice groups, Democratic activists, and wealthy funders including

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

. In 2019, Becton established a conviction integrity unit to review

wrongful convictions A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent p ...

. The unit moved to dismiss three convictions that relied on the uncorroborated testimony of a police officer who was accused of misconduct. The misconduct came to light after a new state law, SB 1421, made certain police records accessible to public records requests. On July 7, 2020, Becton charged two residents of Contra Costa with a

hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...

for allegedly defacing a Black Lives Matter mural. In April 2021, Becton's office filed charges against former Danville Police Officer Andrew Hall, for the 2018 killing of Laudemer Arboleda while on duty. Becton said that Hall used "unreasonable and unnecessary force" when he shot Arboleda during an attempted

traffic stop A traffic stop, colloquially referred to as being pulled over, is a temporary Detention (imprisonment), detention of a driver of a vehicle and its occupants by police to Criminal investigation, investigate a possible crime or minor violation o ...

. A jury convicted Hall for

assault with a deadly weapon In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result i ...

, and deadlocked on the charge for

voluntary manslaughter Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human in which the offender acted in the heat of passion, a state that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed to the point that they cannot reasonably control thei ...

. In March 2022, Hall was sentenced to six years in prison. In September 2021, Becton's office refused to file any charges against the driver who killed Gregg Knapp as he rode his bicycle, despite that driver operating their vehicle in a bicycle lane, apparently due to being distracted. Becton's office declined repeated requests to offer any explanation for their refusal to uphold the law in this case, issuing only the following typograhic-error-ridden statement: "Bicycle fatalities are devastating events. Following through icreview of the investigation, the Office of the District Attorney has determined that there is insufficient evidence to satisfy the requisite standard of criminal negligence on the part of the suspect driver. That icdangers of distracted driving are well known, to truly promote road safety motorists need to be attentive drivers as well." In the June 2022 election, Becton secured a majority of the vote and won re-election, defeating opponent Mary Knox. Columnist Mark Z. Babarak wrote that Becton successfully campaigned on both public safety and criminal justice reform. Becton was able to win while

Chesa Boudin Chesa Boudin (, ; born August 21, 1980) is an American lawyer who served as the 29th San Francisco District Attorney's Office, District Attorney of San Francisco from January 8, 2020, to July 8, 2022. He is a member of the Democratic Party (Uni ...

, another progressive District Attorney in the Bay Area, lost his election. In an interview after the election, Becton noted that her campaign's messaging on a) public safety and b) accountability for public officials and police officers resonated the most with voters. Becton declined to opine on Boudin's campaign performance.

Personal Issues

In July 2019, Chief Deputy District Attorney Phyllis Redmond resigned, citing disagreements in management style. Redmond said that Becton did not seek input from prosecutors on key decisions around changes to the state's murder law, leading to the freeing of a prisoner after their murder conviction was overturned. Redmond joined at least 12 staff attorneys out of about 90 who had resigned in the prior six months. The report suggested that staff members in the District Attorney's office resisted Becton's progressive reforms and progressive changes to state law that seek more alternatives to traditional "tough on crime" measures. In 2019, Deputy District Attorney Mary Knox filed a complaint of retaliation against Becton. According to Knox, Becton demoted Knox after learning that Knox supported Becton's opponent in the 2018 election. The merit board sent the case before an administrative law judge, who recommended that Becton had not committed political retaliation. In 2021, the Contra Costa Merit Board rejected the recommendation, and some board members cast doubt on sworn statements made by Becton and her chief deputy. Knox ran against Becton for District Attorney in 2022. In February 2020, four women deputy district attorneys sued Becton in federal court for gender and age discrimination, alleging they were demoted and passed up for promotions.

Personal life

Becton grew up in

East Oakland East Oakland is a geographical region of Oakland, California, United States, that stretches between Lake Merritt in the northwest and San Leandro in the southeast. As the southeastern portion of the city, East Oakland takes up the largest porti ...

. She resides in El Sobrante, California. In 2020, Becton married Dr. Alvin Bernstine, a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

. Becton received criticism for hosting an outdoor wedding at her home in August 2020, when the county had placed restrictions on gatherings to combat the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Becton said she consulted with the county health services and that "I did everything that I knew possible to obtain the best information".

References

External links