Seth Williams For District Attorney (Again)
by ChrisMarch 24th, 2005 3:54 pm
Note: I’m just reposting this from January to keep the noise level up a little. I’ll have new material up soon.
In case you missed it, Seth Williams officially announced his candidacy for Philadelphia District Attorney on Saturday, at Vernon Park in Germantown. He will be running in the primary against Lynn Abraham, America’s deadliest D.A., or so they say. In the last primary, Abraham was opposed by Alex Talmadge, who I believe had no prosecutorial experience but managed to receive 41 percent of the vote, despite running a severely underfunded, and largely unnoticed campaign. Unlike Mr. Talmadge, Seth Williams has a great deal of experience as a prosecutor and if he runs a good campaign, should have an excellent chance of winning the primary.
In the July 16, 1995 edition of The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Lynn Abraham was quoted saying she didn’t care “how many millions it costs” to put somebody to death. She also stated, in that same article, that “when it comes to the death penalty, I am passionate.” That’s some pretty ugly stuff. According to that same article (sorry no link, you have to pay to read it), her office seeks the death penalty in greater percentage of cases than any other District Attorney’s office in the United States. Although I haven’t seen any recent data, I would assume that is still the case.
Even if you aren’t opposed to the death penalty, you should be disturbed by the attitude displayed in those quotes. The application of the death penalty consumes many times the resources, both financial and human, consumed by prosecution and execution of life sentences. Philadelphia’s criminal justice system can scarcely afford the burden placed upon it by Abraham’s enthusiastic pursuit of the death penalty. That burden may be one reason that 50 percent of felony prosecutions in Philadelphia are thrown out due to the unpreparedness of the District Attorney’s office.
It should be noted that Mr. Williams also supports the death penalty but has said that “It should be the exception, not the rule.”. A refreshing if, in my mind, imperfect change.
Seth Williams’ campaign website is up and running. You can view it here. If you are at all interested in Philadelphia’s future, Please consider contributing to his campaign and/or signing up as a volunteer. It’s doubtful too many prominent Philadelphia Democrats will stick their necks out on Williams’ behalf, so he will need all of the grassroots support he can get.
[Update] Click here to have a look at Seth Williams proposals for reorganizing the DA’s office and implementing community based prosecution. The file is in PDF format and is campaign material. When I have some more time I’ll try to give a breakdown of my thoughts on his proposals which, at first glance, look quite promising.
