Lynne Abraham blasted in Slate article about death penalty

According to a Slate piece about the lingering death penalty in America, select states and counties still practice the controversial crime-management strategy because of "the presence of a handful of disproportionately deadly prosecutors who represent the last, desperate gasps of a deeply flawed punishment regime." Among these particularly deadly prosecutors is Philadelphia Democratic mayoral candidate Lynne Abraham.

Identified in a so-called "trinity of death," also including Florida's Bernie de la Rionda and Bob Macy of Oklahoma, Abraham is cited as having secured 45 death sentences during her tenure as the Philadelphia district attorney. In contrast, the city's current district attorney, Seth Williams, has secured three since Abraham's retirement in 2010.

Abraham served as Philadelphia's district attorney from 1991 until 2010, a nearly 19-year tenure. If Abraham secured the same number of death sentences each year, that would equal about 2.4 death sentences per year.

This is not the first time Abraham has been named as a deadly prosecutor. A 1995 New York Times piece, written a little over four years after she took office, called Abraham "The Deadliest D.A." She told the paper, "When it comes to the death penalty, I am passionate. I truly believe it is manifestly correct."

On this roundup of what Slate refers to as "bloodthirsty devotees" of the death penalty, the website cites a New York Times piece from 2014 naming District Attorney Joe Freeman Britt of Robeson County, North Carolina, America's "Deadliest D.A." with 42 death sentences during his tenure.