Suffolk DA Tierney wins Pace University prosecutorial excellence prize

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney will receive Pace University’s 2026 Robert S. Tucker Prize for Prosecutorial Excellence. The Elisabeth Haub School of Law says the annual honor goes to a prosecutor or group that has made outstanding contributions to criminal prosecution and shown excellence in prosecutorial practice, a standard that invites a harder question in Suffolk County: whether residents have seen measurable gains in violent crime, victim support and the pace of major cases through court.

Pace says honorees are chosen each year by a jury of law professors and criminal justice leaders. The prize is named for Robert S. Tucker, a 1996 graduate of Pace’s law school, and the school has used the award in recent years to recognize prosecutors with a wide reach, including New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang in 2025 and Veronica Dragalin, chief of the Anticorruption Prosecution Office for the Republic of Moldova, in 2023.

Tierney’s office has built much of its public profile around large cases and targeted enforcement. Among the most visible were his promise to prosecute accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann himself, a 57-count indictment against 18 members and associates of a Riverhead-based gang that charged two murders, five shootings, eight armed robberies and possession of 13 illegal weapons, and a retail protection partnership that expanded after 18 alleged serial shoplifters were charged with felony offenses.

Those prosecutions offer one measure of prosecutorial reach, but they are not the same as proof of broader countywide improvement. On public-safety data, state and local officials have pointed to a 44 percent decline in shooting incidents with injury across Nassau, Suffolk and Hempstead police departments, along with double-digit declines in shooting incidents and overall reported crime on Long Island. That regional progress gives Suffolk residents a concrete benchmark for judging whether an award for prosecutorial excellence matches results on the ground.

Tierney’s selection also places Suffolk’s top prosecutor in a line of Pace honorees that has included figures with local, national and international profiles. For Suffolk County, the significance of the prize will come down to whether the office’s most prominent prosecutions continue to produce visible gains in safety, accountability and case outcomes.