Philadelphia Weekly

As of press time, there have been 94 homicides in the city of Philadelphia in 2009. Given the 105 homicides that had occurred by this time last year, the drop in murders seems promising. But the numbers don’t factor in aggravated assault by firearm—when a shooting occurs but the victim lives. Last year, there were 2,729 incidents of aggravated assaults, but arrests were made in less than half of those cases. Overall, 59 percent of all felony cases in Philly get thrown out, and it’s because the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office isn’t ready.

“That’s totally fucked up that we let so many cases go because no one cares enough to address it and say, ‘Look, there’s got to be a better way,” says district attorney candidate Seth Williams. In less than two weeks, Williams will run against four contenders for the Democratic nomination. Whether he gets the votes or someone else does, the race is crucial.

Elwood Boykin of Corlies Street in Grays Ferry knows this. He sits in his Jeep across the street from the makeshift memorial for 15-year-old Harvey Lewis and 17-year-old Dominique Smith. The two boys were murdered, execution-style, on April 19. They were the 81st and 82nd homicide victims of the year.

“I feel real bad,” says Boykin. “The one kid was trying to get himself together. He was in the cadet program and he was trying to bring himself up.” Looking at the memorial, he says, “It’s just sad that it has to be that way.”

Boykin spent 10 years in the military and has some advice for the candidates: “If you find a person illegally putting guns in the system, [that person] should get life, ’cause he’s the one who’s really baitin’ up.” 

Chances are you haven’t been paying much attention to the race for the district attorney. It can be tough to distinguish between five candidates who seem alike on paper and who often speak in talking points and platitudes. But there are times, like when innocent children are killed, that candidates are forced to get real about Philly’s body count.

Three days after the murders of Lewis and Smith, about 100 people gather at the main branch of the Free Library to hear four of the five candidates—Dan McCaffery isn’t able to attend due to family illness—discuss the issue.

The audience seems sparse in the large, cold room, but they listen carefully as candidates consider moderator Tamala Edwards’ broad question about leadership.

“The responsibility of the district attorney is to lead by example,” says Dan McElhatton, “whether that example is to show the moral outrage that we should show when Harvey Lewis, the 15-year-old, and Dominique Smith, the 17-year-old boy, were gunned down at 29th and Morris.”

Candidate Brian Grady, who’s been taking tough-corner tours through some of the city’s high-crime areas, says the next district attorney should go further than just showing outrage. “We need to be in these communities,” says Grady. “People in the city not only don’t trust the justice system, but they don’t trust the four people sitting here, and if you don’t understand that, you’re not paying attention to what’s going on in our city.”

But McElhatton jumps back in, offended by Grady’s assertion: “Brian, I understand what you mean, but I think when you say that folks don’t trust us, I really think that’s a characterization that’s unfair to all of us.”

Whoever is elected to replace current District Attorney Lynne Abraham will matter, because even though these men appear to share the same goal, each one’s focus and leadership style differs significantly. Such differences can have an impact on neighborhood crime prevention and protection—in particular, encouraging community members to come forward and give information that lead to arrests. It’s the best way to get violent predators off the streets.

Of course, access to firearms is a crucial problem as well. District attorney candidate Michael Turner calls gun control a civil rights issue: It’s black men who are dying but white counties around Harrisburg that prevent Philadelphia from making its own gun laws. Turner says his first priority is to lobby Harrisburg: “I think your next DA should go to Harrisburg and, excuse the expression, raise a little hell and get the gun laws changed.”

But changing gun laws will take time, compromise and certainly face a legal challenge from the NRA.

“Sure, do that, and then somewhere, years and years down the road you might have new legislation,” says Brian Grady. “But as the district attorney, you’ve got to enforce what we have.”

Grady says his first priority is to put two experienced district attorneys—the chief of major felonies and the chief of repeat offenders—in the Charging Unit to make sure the book isn’t being thrown at nonviolent petty offenders who should be diverted into community programs instead of prison. Meanwhile, all the stockpiled cases would be prioritized.

“We have to show the communities that we support them by achieving lengthy sentences. Then the communities will feel like we’re more on their side,” he adds. “They’re going to see people not being wholesale thrown into prisons for minor petty offenses. This is going to be something these people never experienced before in their life, and it’s going to be what turns the witness intimidation thing [and] the cooperation thing around.”

Seth Williams, the primary’s polished front-runner, says Philly can’t afford to wait on changing gun laws in Harrisburg because the system is broken at home.

“It’s so easy to allow [the system] to just be jacked up and point their fingers at everybody else and say, ‘That’s their fault’ ... and everyone just goes about their merry way when every weekend four to six young brown men get killed.”