Background
Lynne Abraham was born in 1941 and raised in Philadelphia and educated in its public schools.
lawyer District Attorney of Philadelphia
Lynne Abraham was born in 1941 and raised in Philadelphia and educated in its public schools.
She studied at Temple University for her undergraduate degree and also received her Juris Doctor from Temple University Beasley School of Law.
She was the first woman to serve as Philadelphia"s district attorney. As district attorney, she oversaw the largest such office in Pennsylvania. The office prosecutes approximately 75,000 cases every year and is the largest appellate litigator in the Commonwealth.
Abraham oversaw a professional staff of 300 assistant district attorneys and 275 support staff
She ran for Mayor of Philadelphia in the 2015 election. 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. Abraham is a former assistant district attorney.
She served as a legislative consultant for the city council of Philadelphia, where she assisted council in conducting investigations, drafted legislation, testified at public hearings, met with citizens" groups and revised portions of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter.
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 Doctorate. Castille, who is currently the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, stepped down from the post in order to run for mayor.
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 in Philadelphia history. She earned the nicknames "Deadliest District Attorney" and "Queen of Death" for the high rate at which her office sought the death penalty in past decades.
In the 2004 presidential election, she served as one of Pennsylvania"s electors, casting her ballot for John Kerry.
In the 2008 election, she cast her electoral ballot for Barack Obama.