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 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. Since ...

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 Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

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 ...

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. 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 during the administration of Mayor Frank Rizzo. She was elected Judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court 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 Ronald D. Castille (born March 16, 1944) served on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2014 and was chief justice from 2008 to 2014. He stepped down from the court in 2014, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. He was the ...

, later Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 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 Seth Williams (March 22, 1822 – March 23, 1866) was an American military officer who served as assistant adjutant general of the Union's Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Early life Williams was born in Augusta, Maine. He gradu ...

, 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 This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are no ...

, 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

Later life

Abraham ran for

Mayor of Philadelphia The mayor of Philadelphia is the chief executive of the government of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Philadelphia. The current mayor of Philadelphia is Jim Kenney. History The first mayor of Philadelphia, ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

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 Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

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