Lynne Marsha Abraham (born January 31, 1941) is an American attorney who served as the
district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
of the
City of Philadelphia from May 1991 to January 2010. She was the first woman to serve as Philadelphia's district attorney. Abraham won election to that position four times.
She is also listed as one of the United States deadliest prosecutors, and was known for seeking and obtaining the
death penalty frequently. She ran for
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
in the
2015 election, but lost the Democratic primary.
Early life
Lynne Abraham was born in 1941 and raised in Philadelphia and educated in its public schools. The daughter of first-generation Americans, she grew up on the margins of poverty. Her grandparents were immigrants — a tailor and a butcher — from Europe. She studied at
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...
for her undergraduate degree and also received her
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from
Temple University Beasley School of Law
The Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law is the law school of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and enrolls about 530 students.
Student body
Admission for fall 2019 entering class was highly compe ...
. She was married to
Frank Ford until his death in March 2009.
Career
Abraham is a former assistant district attorney. She served as a legislative consultant for the city council of Philadelphia. She served as the head of the
Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) was created by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Urban Redevelopment Law of 1945. Until the Fall of 2011 it was known as the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia (RDA).
Function
The ...
during the administration of Mayor
Frank Rizzo
Francis Lazarro Rizzo (October 23, 1920 – July 16, 1991) was an American police officer and politician. He served as Philadelphia police commissioner from 1968 to 1971 and mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980. He was a member of the Democ ...
. She was elected Judge of the
Philadelphia Municipal Court
The Philadelphia Municipal Court is a trial court of limited jurisdiction seated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has 27 judges elected by the voters of Philadelphia. The Municipal Court has three divisions: the Criminal Division, the Civil Divi ...
in 1977, then was elected to the Court of Common Pleas in 1980, where she presided over criminal trials until she became district attorney in 1991.
District Attorney
Abraham was elected by her fellow Philadelphia judges to take over as District Attorney in 1991 when then-District Attorney
Ronald D. Castille, later Chief Justice of the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...
, stepped down from the District Attorney post in order to run for mayor. The Board of Judges elected Abraham by a thin 39-37 margin.
As an incumbent, Abraham was elected to a four-year term in 1993. She was re-elected three more times; in 1997 (defeating challengers Jack McMahon and Leon Williams), 2001 (defeating challengers Alexander Talmadge and Leon Williams) and 2005 (defeating challenger
Seth Williams, who would succeed her as District Attorney five years later).
Abraham held the office of district attorney longer than anyone else in Philadelphia history, during which time she saw 108 capital sentences returned. She earned the nicknames "Deadliest DA" and "Queen of Death" for the high rate at which her office sought the death penalty in past decades.
In 2007, Abraham charged William J. Barnes for the murder of a police officer who Barnes shot forty-one years earlier during a failed burglary. The officer survived but died in 2007 from a urinary tract infection. Barnes had served twenty years for the incident but Abraham believed she could prove causation between Barnes' shot and the urinary tract infection. Despite Barnes having reformed his life, he was incarcerated until he was acquitted of the homicide in 2010.
In the
2004 presidential election, she served as one of Pennsylvania's electors, casting her ballot for
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
.
In the
2008 election, she cast her electoral ballot for
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
. Abraham retired in 2009, and was replaced by
Seth Williams.
Later life
Abraham ran for
Mayor of Philadelphia in
2015 and finished third among six candidates in the Democratic primary.
Abraham applied in 2017 to serve as interim district attorney following the resignation of Seth Williams, who had pleaded guilty in a federal corruption case.
The Philadelphia NAACP publicly opposed any such appointment.
Abraham is co-founder of I-LEAD Charter School in
Reading, Pennsylvania.
References
External links
Lynne Abraham records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Lynne
1941 births
Living people
Temple University Beasley School of Law alumni
District Attorneys of Philadelphia
2004 United States presidential electors
2008 United States presidential electors
Pennsylvania Democrats
Politicians from Philadelphia
Mumia Abu-Jamal