Why Philly D.A. Abraham is called 'Queen of Death'
By Betsey
Piette
Philadelphia
Police Chief Bull Connor used dogs against civil rights
demonstrators in Birmingham. Los Angeles Detective Mark
Fuhrman manufactured evidence to try to convict O.J. Simpson.
But neither has anything on Philadelphia District Attorney
Lynne Abraham.
What has made Abraham so hated that she's earned the title
"Queen of Death"?
Since Abraham's appointment as district attorney in 1991
by former Mayor Ed Rendell, she has put over 101 African
Americans from Philadelphia on death row, more than any other
city. A July 16, 1995, New York Times Magazine article
labeled Lynne Abraham this country's "Deadliest D.A."
Abraham's zeal to demand the death penalty has resulted in
over half of Pennsylvania's death row inmates being from this
city, which is also notorious for its police brutality and
corruption. Over 80 percent of them are Black.
When white racists attacked Black students at George
Washington High School in January, Abraham pressed charges
against only the African American victims, until public
outrage forced her to back down. She has refused to try as
adults white teenagers accused of raping a Black child, yet
she has held an African American mentally handicapped child
in an adult jail.
Spawned by Rizzo
Abraham got her start in 1972, when Philadelphia Mayor
Frank Rizzo appointed her to head the city's Redevelopment
Authority. Rizzo, whose racist tenure as police commissioner
led to a federal investigation of the city's police force,
described Abraham as tough cookie."
Abraham began her own rise to infamy as a homicide
prosecutor in the district attorney's office, working
alongside Ed Rendell. Rendell later became district attorney
from 1977 to 1985, then mayor, and last summer held a brief
tenure as head of the National Democratic Party.
Yet another notorious cohort was D.A. Ron Castile, who
oversaw the court proceedings that cleared all officials of
guilt for the 1985 police bombing of the MOVE Organization.
Castile also signed the documents in support of Mumia
Abu-Jamal's death sentence in the 1980s, and now sits on the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In 1999, Castile refused to
recuse himself from the case when Abu-Jamal appealed to that
court for a new trial.
Protégé of Sabo
Abraham became a judge in 1975. She learned her trade from
Judge Albert Sabo, who presided over Abu-Jamal's trial and
hearings in the Court of Common Pleas in 1983. It was Judge
Lynne Abraham who signed the arrest warrants in 1977 that led
to a police assault against a MOVE house in west
Philadelphia's Powelton Village section after months of
police occupation and barricade of the surrounding
neighborhood.
Nine MOVE members were sentenced to terms up to life for
the death of a police officer who was most likely killed by a
stray police bullet in that raid.
Judge Abraham's name again appears on 1985 arrest warrants
for MOVE members that led to the murderous police bombing of
the MOVE house on Osage Avenue. Eleven men, women and
children in the Osage Avenue house were killed by a massive
land and air attack by police on May 13, 1985. Many
demonstrators at Abraham's recent campaign stops have chanted
"baby killer" to remind people of her role in this deadly
assault.
In 1981, it was Judge Abraham who went to Jefferson
Hospital, where Mumia Abu-Jamal was being treated while under
arrest, to arraign him personally for the murder of Officer
Daniel Faulkner.
As district attorney, Lynne Abraham has gone out of her
way to protect the police against victims of their brutality.
Her office has failed to convict any cops for the killings of
Jamel Nichols, Kenneth Griffin, Phillip McCall, Moises
DeJesus, Jahlil Thomas, Robert Jones or Erin Forbes. Not even
in the vicious beating of Thomas Jones last summer, which was
captured on live television, were any cops convicted.
In the case of Donta Dawson, Abraham has openly sought to
thwart attempts by higher courts to bring charges against
former Philadelphia Police Officer Christopher DiPasquale for
the murder of this African American youth.
Abraham's office has also been tainted by the 39th Police
District scandal. Hundreds of convictions were overturned and
dozens of people released from prison after police frame-ups
and faked evidence introduced by police and prosecutors
against the African American community were exposed.
Abraham is running for re-election. An African American
candidate, Alex Talmadge Jr., is challenging Abraham in the
primary election May 15, targeting her racist record.
Talmadge has also called for a moratorium on the death
penalty and seems to be gaining support in the oppressed
communities, prompting Abraham to run ads promoting herself
as a "friend of the Black community."
Abraham's campaign organizers publicly accused Talmadge of
"playing the race card." Recently they've launched a campaign
to vilify Abu-Jamal and MOVE supporters by accusing them of
using anti-Semitic slurs against Abraham. The press has
chosen to focus on this unproven allegation rather than cover
the growing support for Abu-Jamal and the Free Mumia/ Justice
for MOVE encampment.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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