Stephen Zappala earned his JD from Duquesne University School of Law.
10 Facts About Stephen Zappala
1.
2.
Stephen Zappala was appointed by the Allegheny County's Common Pleas judges with 22 votes.
3.
Shortly after his 1998 swearing-in as District Attorney, Stephen Zappala fired Conrad, who had been working in the District Attorney's office as lead homicide prosecutor.
4.
However, Conrad successfully pursued write-in votes on the Republican ballot, which led to Stephen Zappala facing Conrad again in the general election in November 1999.
5.
Stephen Zappala urged the police bureau to discontinue its use of simultaneous photo arrays, in which witnesses were typically shown photos of six to eight suspects on one sheet of paper, in favor of sequential photo arrays, in which they were shown photos individually.
6.
In 2016, DA Stephen Zappala paid nearly $1,400 in bitcoin as ransom after his office computer network was taken hostage by the Avalanche phishing group.
7.
In 2019, Stephen Zappala was re-elected with 57 percent of the vote.
8.
In 2021, Stephen Zappala sent an email to his prosecutors instructing them not to offer plea deals a well-known black attorney who had criticized the criminal justice system.
9.
Shortly thereafter, an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge said he would no longer accept plea deals from Stephen Zappala's office, saying it was wrong to treat defendants differently based on who represents them.
10.
Stephen Zappala lost the 2023 Democratic primary election to Matt Dugan.