In the United States,a district attorney (DA),county attorney,county prosecutor,state's attorney,prosecuting attorney,commonwealth's attorney,or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a local government area,typically a county or a group of counties. The exact scope of the office varies by state. Generally,the prosecutor is said to represent the people of the jurisdiction in the state's courts,typically in criminal matters,against defendants. With the exception of three states,district attorneys are elected,unlike similar roles in other common law jurisdictions.
Dennis Michael Fisher is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He also serves as the Distinguished Jurist in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. A former politician,Fisher has served as a state representative,state senator,and as Attorney General of Pennsylvania. He was the Republican nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002,losing to Ed Rendell.
William LaFortune is an American politician who served as the 37th Mayor of Tulsa,Oklahoma from 2002 to 2006 and is currently a district judge in Tulsa County.
Stephen A. Zappala Jr. is an American lawyer who is the current District Attorney of Allegheny County,Pennsylvania.
William Henry Stanton was an attorney,editor,politician and judge. He served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district,elected to fill the vacancy when Winthrop Welles Ketcham resigned and serving for three months from December 1876 to early March 1877. He was previously editor of the Scranton Daily Times until 1872.
Bruce Lee Castor Jr. is an American lawyer and retired Republican politician from Montgomery County,Pennsylvania. He was appointed as the first Solicitor General of Pennsylvania in March 2016,and also first deputy attorney general the following July. Castor became acting attorney general less than a month later. He led for the defense of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump along with American lawyer David Schoen.
The Pennsylvania attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. The current attorney general is Democrat Michelle Henry.
Rob Wyda was the District Judge of Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair,one of the largest magisterial districts in Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1999,he was elected three times. He announced his candidacy for a seat on the Pennsylvania Superior Court in March 2013,but withdrew a few weeks later.
David Max Baer was an American judge who served as a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from the time of his election in 2003 until his death in 2022. He was elevated to the court's most senior position,chief justice,in 2021.
Ernest D. Preate,Jr. is a former Republican Pennsylvania Attorney General. As Attorney General,he argued before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case,Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania v. Casey on behalf of Robert P. Casey,then governor of Pennsylvania. Preate also successfully argued another landmark case,Blystone v. Pennsylvania in the United States Supreme Court addressing the death penalty.
Susan Peikes Gantman was a senior judge and president judge emeritus of the Pennsylvania Superior Court. She has been described by historians as "a tireless advocate on behalf of children and other victims of abuse."
Bernard L. McGinley was a judge of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.
Mary Beth Buchanan (née Kotcella) is the former United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She was nominated by George W. Bush on September 5,2001,and confirmed by the United States Senate on September 14,2001.
Sallie Updyke Mundy is a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and a former judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Kathleen Margaret Kane is an American former politician and lawyer who served as the attorney general of Pennsylvania from 2013 until her resignation in 2016,following her conviction for perjury,obstruction of justice,and related charges for illegal activities while she was attorney general. She was the first woman and first Democrat ever elected to the position.
Cynthia Anita Ackron Baldwin is an American jurist who was a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after serving sixteen years as a Pennsylvania County Court judge. Baldwin was the first African-American woman elected to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and the second African-American woman to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She retired from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2008. After her retirement from the Court,she became a partner with Duane Morris and served as the first General Counsel for the Pennsylvania State University.
Cheryl Lynn Allen became the first African-American woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. A Pittsburgh native and former Pittsburgh public school teacher,Judge Allen is a graduate of Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Risa Vetri Ferman is the judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Montgomery County,Pennsylvania,and was formerly District Attorney of the same county. After working for 15 years in the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office,in November 2007,she became the first woman elected District Attorney in Montgomery County. In 2011,Ferman won re-election and began her second term as District Attorney in January 2012. She is the daughter of Barbara and Sal Vetri,and sister of restaurateur Marc Vetri and television director and producer Adam Vetri.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Pennsylvania. Despite remaining a legal penalty,there have been no executions in Pennsylvania since 1999,and only three since 1976. In February 2015,Governor Tom Wolf announced a formal moratorium on executions that is still in effect as of 2023,with incumbent Governor Josh Shapiro continuing Wolf's moratorium. However,capital crimes are still prosecuted and death warrants are still issued.
Ralph Stanton Wettick Jr. is a retired United States judge who served on the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County,Pennsylvania,Pennsylvania's Fifth Judicial District,from 1976 to 2016. He was a leading authority on discovery under Pennsylvania's Rules of Civil Procedure,and was known for handling important and complex cases.
