What does a DA do? District attorney webinar aims to educate Cape voters

In advance of the district attorney election in November, several local organizations are partnering to present the webinar "What a Difference a DA Makes," an educational workshop about the prominent law enforcement role.

“District attorneys are the most powerful people in the criminal justice system,” said Jeanne Morrison, co-vice president of the League of Women Voters of the Cape Cod area, one of the sponsor groups. “This workshop will educate people on what a DA does, the role of the DA, who is qualified to be a DA, and how to hold a DA accountable.”

The virtual event, which will feature Whitney A. Taylor, political director of the American Civil Liberties Union Massachusetts, will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 26.

Lou Cerrone, a member of the Cape and Island's Democratic Council, said there are “quite a few people” throughout the community who don’t know who the district attorneys are in Massachusetts, and don’t know the role is an elected position. The main point of the webinar, he said, is to “provide as much information as possible to area-wide voters.”

“You would be surprised how few people even know the term of the office and when the elections are coming up and don't know what his or her duties and responsibilities are,” Cerrone said. “They don’t know what a DA’s obligation is to the public, and so on. That’s why this public education forum is really important — especially since this election is coming up in November of 2022.”

Along with the League of Women Voters, other sponsors are the local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Martin Luther King Group and the Cape Cod Coalition for Safe communities.

The public education initiative will highlight the key role a district attorney plays in determining the effectiveness and fairness of the criminal legal system, organizers say.

Attendees can also learn about a district attorney’s ability to determine bail, revoke bail requests, seize property before convictions have been made, use mandatory minimums to leverage guilty pleas, and set policy matters related to criminal justice.

Arthur Hardy Doubleday, president of the Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said “knowledge is power.”

“We want everyday people to pay attention. If you looked at criminal justice reform nationally, the DA holds all the cards from the beginning,” Hardy-Doubleday said. “If the DA refuses to prosecute certain crimes, the police stop arresting for those crimes and they start using alternative means to solve those problems.”

The program evolved from data collected in 2018 through a statewide survey poll by ACLU of Massachusetts of 618 voters in the state.

The data, according to the ACLU Massachusetts website, showed that eight in 10 voters think Massachusetts needs to reform its criminal justice system; 88% think the state should work towards changing the criminal justice system so people are not treated differently based on who they know; and 84% believe Massachusetts should work to change the criminal justice system so citizens are not treated differently based on race and wealth.

Through further data collection, the ACLU's Taylor said areas that held “What a Difference a DA Makes” webinars and other educational platforms showed a higher voter turnout in the 2018 district attorney elections.

There are 11 elected district attorneys in Massachusetts who serve four-year terms in office. Michael O'Keefe, district attorney for the Cape and Islands, earlier this month said he will not seek re-election this year after serving in the post for five terms — nearly 20 years.

Taylor said the Cape and Islands region has a “unique opportunity” to create a platform for “voters to really get involved” in this year’s race. As of Feb. 5, candidates can begin the district attorney application process, and have until May to collect signatures and complete their submission.

“The Cape has an incumbent that was well known and part of the criminal legal system on Cape Cod for many, many years. And, for the most part, Michael O’Keefe was never challenged,” she said. "If there's no challenger, there's no platform for voters to get involved. We want to make sure that we support local groups on Cape Cod so that they can lead ongoing community forums and create community accountability so that voters on (the) Cape can make a choice in 2022.”

Jack McDevitt, director of the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University, said any educational forum like “What a Difference a DA Makes” can be a good place for Cape citizens to begin involving themselves in upcoming district attorney elections and the issues and systems that revolve around the position.

“There's a demand for people to think about the justice system and reforms in the justice system. That's coming from a variety of places in our community. It's something that we all should be looking at,” he said. “The gatekeeping function is huge and has an impact on people's lives. It’s really important to think about police reform, but also reforming the rest of the justice system, including the courts and aggression system. And one of the big parts of the courts is the district attorney's office.”

Hardy-Doubleday, an attorney at Doubleday Law in Boston, said further education for Cape and Islands citizens has the “potential to create real change.” He pointed to Rachel Rollins, former district attorney for Suffolk County and current U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, as a district attorney who impacted the criminal justice system with policy changes she made during her time in office.

“When you look at the work Rachel Rollins has done in Suffolk County, that illustrates to the public that there was change between herself and the district attorney that came before her,” Hardy-Doubleday said. “For many of us that don’t have any interaction with the system, we may not understand how important the DA is for others. But they can make or break ones family depending on the discretion that a DA uses when applying the law.”

McDevitt, who is also a professor of the Practice in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern, said that when Rollins was DA, district attorney offices nationally began questioning their role after Rollins changed her policy on punishing low-level offenders.

“Rachel Rollins got into a little bit of controversy with the Boston police department for saying that she wasn't going to prosecute low-level offenders,” he said. “Prosecutors are trying to rethink what their office should be doing in terms of criminal records for first-time offenders or first-time, low-level offenders. It’s certainly not changing everywhere, but it's changing in spots across the country — with Massachusetts being one.”

Taylor said the most important thing for Massachusetts citizens to remember is that district attorneys are “held accountable to nobody but the voters.”

The importance of this campaign is to remind voters that (district attorneys) work for them,” she said. “Voters need to make sure they are asking questions and looking into what types of candidates there are in their area. If we want our community to match our values, we need to vote those values.”

If you go:

What: “What a Difference a D.A. Makes,” a virtual public education webinar

When: 6 to 7:30 p.m., Jan. 26

Register: bit.ly/WADADAMCapeCod

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'What a Difference a DA Makes,' webinar set for Jan. 26