Durham District Attorney: Satana Deberry

Name: Satana Deberry

Age: 56

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: www.facebook.com/deberry4da

Occupation and employer: 16th Prosecutorial District Attorney – State of North Carolina

1. What do you believe are the most important issues facing the District Attorney’s Office? What are your top three priorities in addressing these issues?

Looking back over the past four years, the single most persistent public safety and prosecution-related concern in Durham has been addressing violent crime and gun-related offenses. While recent data shows progress, such as a measurable decline in violent crime in certain categories, community concerns about both violent and quality-of-life-impacting offenses remain significant. This is understandable. I also recognize that these concerns are compounded when the public does not have clear, accessible information about how cases are handled, the resources being deployed, and the results of those efforts; this is something I work daily to improve.

As District Attorney, my plan for the next term is to continue to refine my data-driven, transparent, and community-centered approach to the responsibilities of my office. 

1. My office will continue to prioritize the prosecution of serious offenses, including gun-related crimes and repeat violent offenders, using evidence-based strategies to ensure consistent outcomes. Access to real time court data has been limited while the Administrative Office of the Courts rolled out the eCourts implementation. Now that eCourts is available statewide, we will continue to work with our data partners at the Wilson Center to gather and publish information. I will work expand efforts to make case and public safety data readily accessible through online dashboards, regular reports, and briefings for community organizations, neighborhood associations, and media partners. In my first term as DA, I invested in a public and community affairs officer for the office to manage these efforts. However, due to statewide funding issues, I was no longer able to sustain that effort after six years. However, I continue to work towards developing innovative and effective efforts to improve my office’s communication with the public. Conversations about community safety should be grounded in facts, context, and clarity, not anecdote or perception alone, while honoring the power of lived experiences. 

2. My office will continue to strengthen collaborative partnerships with law enforcement, social service providers, community violence interruption programs, and public health agencies. By continuing to coordinate with these partners, we can identify patterns, deploy resources more effectively, and support interventions, such as diversion programs, reentry services, and mental health and substance use treatment, all of which reduce recidivism and address underlying drivers of crime. Durham will hire a new police chief in the coming months, and it is my intention to build as strong a relationship with the incoming chief and staff as I have built with the current chief and her staff. 

3. Accountability and transparency are core values of any organization I have led. The District Attorney’s Office is no exception. Residents, victims, and stakeholders will continue to have clear points of contact and timely updates on case progress, as well as explanations for decisions regarding charging, plea resolutions, or diversion. We have steadily prioritized these practices but understand that there continues to be room for improvement; we will continue to assess and act accordingly. 

2. What in your record as a public official or other experience demonstrates your ability to be an effective district attorney? This might include career or community service; be specific about its relevance to this office.

First, and most obviously, I have been an effective District Attorney for Durham County for the last 7 years. I have the deep and wide experience running the office and bringing it into the 21st century in culture, management and technology. I am a well respected prosecutor both statewide and nationally – who has been recognized for common sense solutions that result in fairer prosecution and more community trust in the office. We have seen an overall decrease in crime and more community resources available to keep people out of the criminal justice system. Community partners know me and the staff in my office and know they can work with us collaboratively. Even people who don’t agree with me know that my door is always open and my mind is always open to criticism or concern.

I have been in law practice for 31 years. My practice has been broad and has mostly focused on litigation and systemic change. I have practiced both criminal prosecution and defense, represented county DSS, been General Counsel at NC DHHS, practiced health care law, financial fraud defense, housing law and finance. The focus of my career has mostly been on impacting and changing the systems that restrict the lives and opportunities of communities of color, rural communities, low-income people, women, children and the disabled. My goal as a lawyer is to push our legal system to protect the least of us, not the most powerful.

I have spent the last two decades managing large staffs of both professional and non-professional employees. I have led several nonprofits with multimillion dollar budgets before leading the District Attorney’s Office.

3. If you are challenging an incumbent, what decisions has the incumbent made that you most disagree with? If you are an incumbent, what in your record and experience do you believe entitles you to another term?

Voters should support me for another term because I have done everything I promised to do in my last two races. The numbers of people in the detention center are down. There are more diversion and dismissal options for people accused of low-level crime and driving offenses. My office helped establish the DEAR program, which seeks to restore individual driver’s licenses. To date, we have restored the driver’s licenses of thousands of our neighbors and moved the court to forgive $2M in fines and fees. I have refocused the office on the quality of prosecution and not the quantity. That means we are working more closely with law enforcement to prosecute homicides and sexual assaults – resulting in more convictions and fewer successful appeals. We have improved victim and witness services. I have created a more fair and just vision for the office of District Attorney. Both victims and defendants know they will be treated fairly and with constitutional protections. That is particularly important in today’s legal atmosphere where constitutional norms and protections are not always respected. I am also the only prosecutor in NC who has refused to prosecute women or their medical providers for exercising their rights to choice to terminate pregnancies. 

I am also proud of our Sexual Assault Kit Initiative with Durham Police Department. Durham County was the first jurisdiction in NC to test all its backlog of sexual assault kits. As a result, my office was able to take over a multi-year federal grant to prosecute cold case sexual assault cases resulting from the kit testing. To date, my office has prosecuted and convicted more sexual assault cold cases than any other office in North Carolina.

4. Shootings are down in Durham, but gun violence—particularly among young people—remains a concern. What do you believe the DA’s Office’s role is in reducing violence, including juvenile crimes? If you’re an incumbent, how have you worked to achieve that? If you’re a challenger, what would you do if elected?

The real test of community safety is how many people feel comfortable sending their children out to play in their neighborhood or sitting on their porch. In that sense, the real challenge in Durham is young people who are involved in either car theft, robbery of marijuana dealers and social media “beefs”. Car thefts lead to increased property damage and feelings of insecurity. These thefts also can lead to loss of life through carjacking and traffic accidents. More and more we are seeing juveniles who rob “the weed man” at gun point because those dealers carry unusually large amounts of cash. My office works closely with DPD to build intelligence about local shootings to help make stronger cases for conviction of those regularly involved in behavior that results in violence. This often involves indicting and pursuing the most serious, provable offense when guns and robbery are involved.

5. What kinds of diversion programs do you support using in the DA’s Office? What kinds of cases do you believe should be exempted from diversion programs?

I have consistently supported diversionary efforts as part of my commitment to progressive policies and practices. An elected DA is more than a figurehead or personnel manager. I look beyond the nuts and bolts of prosecuting individual cases to see how our entire system can be improved and tailored to the needs of our community. I take input and ideas from academic circles, progressive nonprofits, think tanks, and other policy initiatives and pursue those practices in our local courts. Getting progressive values from broad-spectrum visions into everyday practice is challenging but has made a tremendous difference.

Equitable charging and plea negotiations and regular communication and training with law enforcement partners has resulted in less need for diversionary practices and programs. If fewer lower level and nonviolent cases enter the system, fewer need to be diverted. Our criminal justice system is the most expensive, least effective way to deal with cases. Making sure we deal with systemic issues at the community level rather than shifting them to the courthouse is a clear progressive value.

One of the biggest examples of this process is Durham’s specialty courts and diversion programs. Our Mental Health Court and Adult Recovery Court combine the efforts and best practices of clinicians, researchers, and legal professionals to address the often-intertwined challenges of justice involvement, mental health, and substance abuse. Individual ADAs are empowered and encouraged to refer defendants to specialty courts or other diversionary programs. Right now, I am working with a statewide commission and local stakeholders to evaluate and refine our specialty courts and promote practices which reflect the values and suggestions from groups such as the Vera Institute and the Vanderbilt Project on Prosecution Policy.

Having said all that, some crimes are not appropriate for diversion from the court system. Murder, Human Trafficking, Sexual Assault, and Domestic Violence are some examples of serious and violence crime that should be appropriately handled by the criminal justice system.

6. The recently passed Iryna’s Law eliminates the option for judges to release people pretrial with only a written promise to appear in court and requires that they set secured bonds for defendants charged with violent offenses or with more than two prior convictions. Do you support these changes? Why or why not?

The bond changes in Iryna’s Law do not address the core issues in pretrial detainment in NC. The NC General Assembly is attempting to shift blame to the criminal justice system for their failure to invest in and support long term mental health services for people who have psychiatric issues that make them dangerous. I believe that local judges are best suited to determine the bond of someone accused of crime. Iryna’s Law serves to distract us from the real issues at hand – which is underinvestment in public services.

7. No one on North Carolina’s death row has been executed since 2006. Provisions of Iryna’s Law open the door for executions to resume. In what circumstances, if any, do you support using the death penalty? In what circumstances do you support life sentences and de facto life sentences?

As District Attorney, I do not seek the death penalty. I believe the threat of it is coercive and racially biased. No Durham County jury has returned a death sentence this century. I believe life sentences and de facto life sentences should be rare and reserved for accountability for the most heinous crimes. 

8. Prosecutors routinely make decisions about which cases to pursue, especially with offices across the state understaffed. What kinds of cases would you prioritize for prosecution? Which would you deprioritize? Please explain your answer.

My office prioritizes the prosecution of serious and violent crime. Traditionally, that includes homicides, shootings, assaults (both violent and sexual). We also place a high priority on the prosecution of domestic violence and child abuse cases – knowing that exposure to family violence increases the chances of mortality and long-term trauma. Over the last several years, my office has also developed a specialty in identifying and prosecuting human trafficking cases.

We have worked with law enforcement and community partners like the City of Durham Community Safety Department and the Durham County Justice Services Department to deprioritize the prosecution of low level drug and property crimes rooted in mental health and substance abuse issues. We now have community resources that provide non criminal justice related services to those populations.

9. How should the DA’s Office take immigration status into consideration?

Immigration and citizenship status is not a priority for my office. Our priority is ensuring that the rights of the individuals in our community are protected, and that is what I have tasked our ADAs with doing as they work their cases. Sometimes, that can implicate the actions of federal immigration officials. Arresting someone without a judicial warrant or taking a parent into custody without providing for the supervision of their child are violations of North Carolina law, and perpetrators should be held accountable.

10. As DA, how have you dealt with fatal use of force by law enforcement? If you are a challenger, how well do you think the incumbent DA has dealt with use of force by local law enforcement officers?

As DA, I made a promise to be public and transparent about decisions I make in fatal use of force incidents. I have kept that promise. Not only do I provide a written explanation of my decision to the law enforcement agency and the family of the victim, I release that written explanation to the press. Additionally, I provide an opportunity for the victim’s family to review any video or audio evidence is available.

Additionally, every fatal use of force case in Durham County has been investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation -not by the law enforcement agency that employs the officer involved. This ensures that any investigation is unbiased and not influenced by the officer’s chain of command.

11. The state legislature determines how many prosecutor positions it will fund in each DA’s Office. Durham has not received new state-allotted prosecutor positions in two decades. How do you propose closing cases more efficiently given the shortage of staff? How would you advocate for more resources for the DA’s Office?

The single most important challenge facing the office is the lack of resources allocated to the Courts by the NC General Assembly. My inability to increase the size of and match local wages for both attorneys and support staff is a barrier to recruitment and retention. The General Assembly has not allocated more ADAs to Durham County since the 1999-2001 budget. Across the country, jurisdictions the size of Durham County have at least two times the number of staff. And salaries are well behind what attorneys can make in private practice or even other government practice. An experienced trial attorney can make twice as much in private practice as with my office. An experienced legal assistant can make more than an entry level ADA in private practice. 

We work as a team to work close more cases efficiently. Everyone in the office is part of a team that triages cases together. My ADAs stay up to date on prosecutorial practices – averaging 40 hours of training a year. We also use digital resources to help move our cases.

I am an active member of the NC Conference of District Attorneys and have worked consistently with that group to raise salaries in our offices through legislative lobbying. Since I joined the conference, we have increased salaries by almost 30%.

12. Give an example of an opinion, policy, vote, or action you changed based on constituent feedback. If you have not yet held elected office, describe a time when you changed your position on an issue after listening to those affected by it.

I have invested in additional staff training and notification processes for victims – especially of property crimes – based on feedback from constituents. I have learned that victims need OVER communication, as the trauma from being a victim of crime can mean it takes more than one conversation or set of written materials to help them fully understand what is happening in the criminal justice system. We also have partnered community agencies such as the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham and the Durham Crisis Response Center to create more opportunities for victim engagement and support.

13. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address?

As District Attorney, my approach centers on accountability paired with a clear understanding of what the justice system can and cannot solve. When conduct rises to the level of criminal behavior – particularly when it threatens public safety – those cases are addressed appropriately and in accordance with the law. However, prosecution should not be the default response to social and public health challenges. Instead, the focus must be on connecting people with services that address the underlying causes of instability, including mental health treatment, substance use care, and housing support.