R. Seth Williams

For the Civil War general, see Seth Williams.

Seth Williams
24th District Attorney of Philadelphia
Incumbent
Assumed office January 4, 2010
Preceded by	Lynne Abraham
Personal details
Born	January 2, 1967
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Residence	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater	Georgetown University Law Center Pennsylvania State University
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	Army Reserve
Rank	Major

Rufus Seth Williams (born January 2, 1967) is the 24th and incumbent District Attorney of the city of Philadelphia. He began his term January 4, 2010. He formerly served as an Assistant District Attorney (ADA). Williams is the first African-American District Attorney in Philadelphia and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Early life

Rufus Seth Williams was put up for adoption after his birth. After placement in two foster homes, he was adopted and grew up in West Philadelphia, the only child of Rufus O. Williams, a teacher at Sulzberger Middle School, and his wife, Imelda, a secretary at the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard.

He attended Friends' Central School, Central High School and Penn State, where he served as President of the Penn State Student Black Caucus, the Undergraduate Student Government, and was member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. As a student activist, he led a 102-mile march to the state capital at Harrisburg to get Penn State to divest from South Africa. He was a parishioner of St. Carthage Roman Catholic Church (now known as St. Cyprian's), and was altar boy of the year at age 14 in 1981. He graduated from Georgetown University Law in 1992 with distinction as a Public Interest Law Scholar.

Early career

After graduating from Georgetown, Williams joined the District Attorney’s Office. He served 10 years as an Assistant District Attorney. In that time, he was appointed Assistant Chief of the Municipal Court, where he supervised the 30 newest prosecutors. He also created and led the Repeat Offenders Unit with the goal of reducing the high percentage of crimes committed by repeat offenders. His courtroom experience includes 37 jury trials, more than 1,500 bench trials and more than 2,500 felony preliminary hearings.

In 2005, he challenged Lynne Abraham, Philadelphia's longtime incumbent District Attorney, in the Democratic primary, but lost with 46% of the vote. Following the election, he was appointed Inspector General of the City of Philadelphia, where he was responsible for investigating allegations of corruption, fraud, waste, abuse and employee misconduct among municipal workers and companies doing business with the city. He left in 2008 to take a position as counsel at Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young, a Center City law firm.

District Attorney

On November 3, 2009, Williams was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia. Winning more than 75% of the vote, he became the first African American District Attorney of Philadelphia, and in the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was sworn in January 4, 2010, succeeding Abraham.

In January 2011, Williams office brought multiple charges through a grand jury against Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell primarily for killing infants after birth. In 2013, Gosnell was convicted of killing three infants who were born alive during abortion procedures, and is now serving a life sentence.

In 2011, Williams initiated the prosecution of what became known as the "Billy Doe"case - the prosecution of three priests and a schoolteacher for sexual abuse of an altar boy and student (pseudonym Billy Doe) whose account of the alleged abuse changed so as to call into doubt the veracity of the charges that Williams had brought. According to a Newsweek article by Ralph Cipriano, Williams "has not explained any of the factual discrepancies in Billy’s many stories, and why the D.A. would proceed with what Williams described as a “historic” prosecution of the church with a star witness so lacking in credibility." The Catholic League claimed that the four men had been "railroaded by an ambitious D.A."

In 2015, Williams came under fire for not firing prosecutors, including Frank Fina, who were directly involved in sharing pornographic, misogynistic, and racially charged emails on Pennsylvania government computers. The scandal, labeled "Porngate" by the state media, forced Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery to resign. It also forced the suspension of Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin. After considerable backlash, Williams reassigned the prosecutors, but did not fire them.

Other

In 2010, he was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship. Eisenhower Fellowships is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization that fosters international understanding and leadership through the exchange of information, ideas, and perspectives among outstanding leaders throughout the world. He has also been selected for the Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellowship Program for Public Leadership. This program is only open to 24 U.S. political leaders - 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans - deemed as "rising stars" in their communities. The two year fellowship is designed to briefly break down partisan barriers and provide officeholders with an opportunity to step back from their daily responsibilities to consider broader questions of good governance. In October 2011, he received an Alumni Fellow Award from Pennsylvania State University.

Williams is an adjunct professor at Temple and Villanova Universities, as well as an Advisory Board Member at Penn State Abington. He is a Major in the JAG Corps, U.S. Army Reserve.

Personal life

Williams resides in Philadelphia with his three daughters. He is a Roman Catholic who regularly attends mass at St. Cyprian Parish, where he was an altar boy while growing up.

External links

• Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney

Legal offices
Preceded by Lynne Abraham	District Attorney of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2010–Present	Succeeded by Incumbent