Amy Holiday, Golden State Serial Killer Prosecutor, Runs for Superior Court Judge

Amy Holiday helped negotiate a guilty plea from serial rapist and killer Joseph DeAngelo that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life

By Michele McPhee at the LA Times

Dec. 19, 2023

Amy Holliday, the Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney in Sacramento who put the Golden State serial killer and rapist away for life, has filed papers to run for Superior Court Judge on the March 2024 ballot.

Los Angeles magazine ran a longform story on the Golden State Killer in 2013, five years before Joseph DeAngelo was captured after a decades long killing spree. "Fifty rapes. Ten murders. Two identities. One man," the story reads. "From 1976 to 1986, one of the most violent serial criminals in American history terrorized communities throughout California. He was little known, never caught, and might still be out there. Now a determined investigator, a retired detective, and a group of online obsessives are on the hunt to track him down."

DeAngelo is the first known serial killer identified by his genetic genealogy, the fairly new forensic science that takes the DNA of an unknown suspect left behind at a crime scene and identifies him or her by tracing a family tree through his or her family members, who voluntarily submit their DNA to public genealogy databases.

During his reign of terror, DeAngelo was also given the monikers the "East Side Rapist" and the "Original Night Stalker."

Once investigators had DeAngelo in their sights, detectives who surveilled him around-the-clock collected his DNA from a tissue left in a trash. He was arrested in April 2018 in Sacramento County. Since DeAngelo's capture, roughly 150 killers have been identified through genetic genealogy.

On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty — a deal that Holliday helped broker — to 13 counts of first-degree murder. The plea deal also required DeAngelo to admit to multiple uncharged acts, including horrific rapes all over Sacramento County, bringing justice to dozens of victims, as Holliday notes in her announcement.