Sep 26, 2023 3 min read

Walsh is doing the hard work as DA

I read with interest “Unpacking the election for Washington district attorney,” by Gary Stout in the Sept. 17 edition. I’ve never seen Stout in a courtroom. Perhaps that’s why his opinion was based on the TV series “Law and Order.”

The district attorney’s role is not as neat and tidy as TV portrays, nor as simplistic as Stout suggests. A district attorney must strictly follow the law, perform under budget, manage a complex cast of people, encourage public confidence and, most importantly, pursue justice every single time.

I agree that our next district attorney must carry the torch of the late Gene Vittone. I passed the torch to Vittone, who passed it to Jason Walsh.

Stout suggests the election for district attorney centers on the death penalty. Reformers want DA’s nationwide to ignore their legal duties and nullify death penalty cases, citing the concerns Stout parrots. In 2008, I inherited nearly a dozen pending death penalty cases. I noticed several more. Noticing is a mechanical process that lists aggravating factors that could justify seeking the death penalty. My experience confirms that Walsh seeks justice ethically and legally. Regurgitating Stout’s claims of over-pursuit of the death penalty, Walsh’s opponent argues that death “should be reserved for the most heinous first-degree murder cases involving premeditation and a specific intent to kill.” That’s an easy position. It’s what the law requires. That’s what Walsh does.

The deliberative process of noticing death penalty cases is arduous and involves the balance of case facts against aggravating circumstances prescribed by the Legislature. This is far more sophisticated than artistically conveyed in television dramas. Walsh’s record runs contrary to Stout’s novice view – most defendants facing the potential death penalty are white and stand accused of murdering babies. Walsh has not politicized these cases, but pursues them under law. Stout and Walsh’s opponent cry politics yet offer no solution to their own hypothetical.

Finally, Stout spins Democratic candidate Christina DeMarco-Breeden’s spotty record as a rank-and-file prosecutor in Greene, Fayette and Somerset counties as bringing a broader perspective to death penalty cases here. This argument is sophomoric. Washington County has a diverse criminal element, and our population equals those counties combined. Her record of abrupt departures in two counties call into question the judgment especially needed in death penalty cases.

Walsh is doing the hard work. The evidence shows that Stout would better serve readers by offering an informed opinion, not a political one scripted by Hollywood.

Steven M. Toprani

Monongahela

Toprani was the

district attorney for Washington County from 2008 to 2012.