When Satana Deberry was first elected to be Durham’s district attorney in 2018, she made a series of promises to the people of Durham about how she would run her office. She has kept those promises and, in doing so, has become an outstanding district attorney.

She pledged to prioritize violent crime prosecution, especially gun-related crime and repeat violent offenders, and she has done just that, devoting the bulk of her prosecutors’ time to cases of violence. She promised to improve Durham’s murder clearance rate, and the clearance rate for homicides in Durham has risen to almost 90 percent in 2025, far higher than the 62 percent clearance rate nationally.

She said she would make the courts welcoming and safe for immigrants and non-English speakers, and she has, including making it clear that Durham’s residents cannot be arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a judicial warrant.

District Attorney Deberry has improved the technology in her office, advocated against the death penalty and refused to seek it at trial, and declared in the strongest terms that she will not prosecute women or their medical providers for choosing to have an abortion. She has testified before Congress in favor of gun control laws to make our community safer.

When District Attorney Deberry took office, Durham had the largest backlog of untested rape kits in the state—1,709 kits. Durham was among the first cities in the state to complete testing of all backlogged kits. Deberry deserves credit through her office’s work with the police department and state laboratories to clear related cases. Durham has now presented and won convictions for more backlogged rape cases than any other jurisdiction in North Carolina.

In another challenge when she took office, the local detention center was crowded with people being held for trial on low-level property crimes and drug offenses. District Attorney Deberry has supported the City’s HEART Team and the county’s Justice Services department to get people mental health and substance services before they ever enter the criminal legal system. Her office is central to the Mental Health Diversion Court and the Adult Recovery Court, which both divert low-level offenders from jail or prison and into the services they need. 

As a result of these efforts, the population of Durham’s detention center has significantly decreased. This means young low-level drug offenders are diverted from the court system and a conviction that would follow them for the rest of their lives. Instead, they get mental health and substance abuse help.

The district attorney’s office has been a key player in the Durham Expunction and Restoration Program (DEAR), bringing together the entire court system to restore the driver’s licenses of thousands of Durham residents who have not had their licenses for years because of their inability to pay a traffic ticket and the resulting fines. This reform has become a national model, and Ms. Deberry has been an important champion.

District Attorney Deberry’s concentration on prosecuting violent crime and diverting low-level drug crimes from the court system has paid dividends in safety for Durham. Violent crime per 100,000 population in Durham has declined steadily since 2020, shortly after Ms. Deberry was elected. In fact, Durham’s 2025 violent crime rate (484 per 100,000 residents) was lower than at any point since 2012.

The record we have described is one of outstanding accomplishments. Durham is a safer community because Satana Deberry is in office. We strongly endorse her for reelection to a third term, and we hope you will support her as well. She deserves our votes and our thanks.

Steve Schewel served as mayor of Durham from 2017 to 2021 following six years on the Durham City Council. Jillian Johnson served eight years on the Durham City Council. Carl Rist is currently in his first term as an at-large member of the Durham City Council.

Disclosure: Steve Schewel founded the INDY and sold it in 2012.

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