A white prosecutor in Pennsylvania is refusing to make plea deals with a Black defense attorney who criticized systemic racism in the courts

• The Allegheny County district attorney reportedly asked deputies not to make plea deals with Milton Raiford.
• Stephen A. Zappala Jr.'s request was in an email seen by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
• He sent the email after Raiford criticized systemic racism in the court system, the report said.

A white prosecutor in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, told deputy prosecutors in an email not to make plea deals with a Black lawyer who had criticized systemic racism in the court system, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported on Wednesday.

The paper said that in the email, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. wrote that the lawyer, Milton Raiford, had demonstrated "unprofessional conduct" in the courtroom and gone on a "convoluted critical diatribe."

"No plea offers are to be made," Zappala said, according to the report. "The cases may proceed on the information as filed, whether by general plea, nonjury or jury trial. Withdrawal of any charges must be approved by the front office."

Raiford had said in court on May 13 that he thought that "the criminal justice system is systematically racist," according to a transcript seen by the Tribune-Review.

Raiford called Zappala's email "vindictive."

"I don't know why he's making my clients suffer because of something I said," he told the Tribune-Review.

Zappala did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.