Karl and Matt, editors of Philly Future, believe that it is time for a change. We support challenger Seth Williams in his bid to unseat District Attorney Lynne Abraham in the primary that will take place on Tuesday, May 17.
The race has received some press, but voters have not yet begun paying attention to this important primary. Here's why they should:
The Problems
Restructuring the DA’s Office on a Neighborhood Model: Williams has an ambitious plan to reshape the DA’s office from the ground up. Currently, the system works on a horizontal scale – DAs are assigned to specific types of crimes, and specific courts, rather than to neighborhoods. This has led to a system in which a single case is handled by multiple prosecuting teams before it gets resolved – if a case successfully moves from Municipal Court to the Court of Common Pleas, for instance, an entirely new prosecuting team takes over the case in the new court. Williams says that victims and witnesses “feel they have to tell their story over and over� each time the case changes hands. It has also led to a system that has become “a centralized bureaucracy.�
Williams plans to reform this system by instituting a community-based model that will complement Philadelphia’s community-based policing structure. Assigning prosecutors to specific neighborhoods would aid community policing efforts, and would improve communications between different parts of the legal system.
The Death Penalty: Williams argues that unlike Lynne Abraham, he will use the death penalty sparingly, saving it for the worst offenders such as serial killers and police murderers. "I envision a world in which we don't have the death penalty," Williams, who was reared a Catholic and is the product of Quaker primary schools, told the Inquirer. "I want the death penalty to be used as the exception - not the rule." Since 1991, 71 current death-row inmates from Philly have been given the death penalty, but none have yet been executed.
A Pattern of Unsuccessful Prosecution: The city's police union has endorsed Seth Williams. According to the Inquirer, Police officers are upset that the Municipal Court has dismissed many felony arrests because prosecutors have routinely shown up in court without being properly prepared for court proceedings. Williams has pointed out that more than fifty percent of all felony arrests in the city are thrown out of court because prosecutors are not ready for trial. Problems with unpreparedness accompany a pattern of overcharging, such as Abraham’s unsuccessful charging of 400 protestors during the 2000 Republican National Convention.
Little Attention to Gun Violence: Williams has pointed out that Lynne Abraham has five prosecutors working on welfare-fraud cases and eighteen working on auto-insurance fraud, but does not have a unit devoted to gun trafficking – even though, according to the Inquirer, 80 percent of the homicides in the city last year involved guns. In a year when homicides are mounting with alarming regularity, this is an important issue that should not be ignored.
The Solution – Why Seth Williams is the Right Man for the Job
Williams is a Philadelphia native who knows what the city’s neighborhoods need
Williams joined Philly D.A. office right after graduating from Georgetown Law School, and spent 10 and a half years working as an Assistant D.A. – he knows where the problems in the system lie, and how to fix them.
Williams has taken his case to the people, both online and offline, going out of his way to attend events such as Drinking Liberally and to contact bloggers to thank them for their support. He is a grassroots, netroots challenger, which is only fitting for a man who wants to rebuild the DA’s Office from the ground up. We feel that the kind of outreach he has shown during his campaign is indicative of the kind of DA he will be.
One sign of the strength of Williams’ proposals is the fact that as his campaign has gained strength, Lynne Abraham has tried to co-opt his ideas. Abraham is now proposing a similar community model for the DA’s office, but the proposal rings hollow after she has presided over the destruction of that very model.
GET OUT AND VOTE
The May primary voting is expected to be very light, which is why it is important to get the word out about Seth Williams and to encourage everyone you know to get out and vote for him on May 17.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this endorsement reflect the opinions of the editors of Philly Future, and do not represent the views of the site's users, affiliates, or advertisers.
