Letter: Vote Jenna Wallace for district attorney

No matter how many times Katherine Benfield mourns the good old days of good old boys, the class of deputy DAs she misses were mediocre at best. I literally volunteered my time as a prosecutor because the office back then lacked trial attorneys competent to prosecute violence. Lanee Danforth successfully recruited a highly skilled staff. Jenna Wallace is at the top of that class.

There are fundamental differences in both background and approach between the two candidates for Lincoln County District Attorney. Benfield is a career defense attorney. Wallace is a career prosecutor. Benfield wants to make sure we are not prosecuting the wrong people. Wallace wants to make sure that not only are we not prosecuting the wrong people but that we are prosecuting those predators who by their own conduct prove that we and our vulnerable are not safe around them.

I’ve worked in prison reform, as a public defender, running a special victims unit and prosecuting some of the worst and most violent offenders both in New York and Lincoln County. Certainly, I’ve seen people swept up in the system who don’t belong there. Both candidates stand for the proposition that such people should be spared consequences disproportionate to their actual criminal conduct. But, it is the primary responsibility of a chief prosecutor to take on violent, dangerous, malicious people and to seek justice for their victims and our community.

Jenna Wallace understands that mission. Nothing that Katherine Benfield has said so far suggests that she does.

Alice Vachss

Newport