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

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

and is currently both the first

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

and first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to be elected

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

in the history of

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

in California.

Education and early career

Becton attended

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

public schools. She received a B.A. in

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

from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

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 one of the professional graduate schools of Golden Gate University. Located in downtown San Francisco, California, GGU is a Califor ...

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

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

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 branch of the California Superior Court with jurisdiction over Contra Costa County. It has four courthouses: Martinez, ...

in 1995 by then

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

Pete Wilson. In 2011, she was elected by her colleagues to be the presiding judge, in charge of court administration. Becton has a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an 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 practice.

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

from the Pacific School of Religion. Becton was admitted to the

State Bar of California The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

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'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 issues such as bail 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 fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

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 direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

, 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 subsidiar ...

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

wrongful convictions A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly 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. Inno ...

. 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 A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

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, commonly referred to as being pulled over, is a temporary detention of a driver of a vehicle by police to investigate a possible crime or minor violation of law. United States A traffic stop is usually considered to be a T ...

. A jury convicted Hall for

assault with a deadly weapon An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

, and deadlocked on the charge for voluntary manslaughter. In March 2022, Hall was sentenced to six years in prison. 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 (United ...

, 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.

Personnel 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 went 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 portio ...

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

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

. 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, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. 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