By Post Staff

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is opposing petitions filed by two men who were convicted of multiple murders, including the killing of Oakland Post editor Chauncy Bailey 12 years ago, and are now seeking release from prison.

Yusuf Bey IV, a leader of the former Your Black Muslim Bakery, and Antoine Mackey, a staff member at the bakery, filed motions this year to overturn their 2011 murder convictions for Bailey’s assassination in 2007.

Both men, who are now 37, are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, Bey IV in California State Prison- Sacramento, and Mackey in Salinas Valley State Prison.

Bey IV was convicted of killing three people: Bailey, Odell Roberson, and Michael Wills. Mackey was convicted of Bailey’s killing and the fatal shooting of Wills.

The motions for release from prison argue that changes in California’s felony murder rule in 2019 raise the standard for when prosecutors can charge people with murder.

The Alameda District Attorney’s Office has already filed responses opposing both motions, arguing that the nature of their convictions are sufficient grounds for a judge to dismiss the two petitions.

In opposition to Bey IV’s petition, Deputy District Attorney Dana Drusinsky wrote, “At Petitioner’s trial, the jury convicted him of three first-degree murders with multiple murder special circumstance findings as to each one…As to each murder, the jury found true that Petitioner was either ‘the actual killer’ or ‘that he did intend to kill.’”

The opposition to Mackey’s motion, which was filed by a different prosecutor, contains similar wording as the opposition to Bey’s motion.

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