Kym Worthy
{{short description|American prosecutor (born 1956)}}
{{Cleanup-PR|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Kym Loren Worthy
| image =
| caption =
| state = Michigan
| office = Prosecutor of Wayne County
| term_start = July 16, 2004
| term_end =
| predecessor = Mike Duggan
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|12|5}}
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| party = Democratic
| children = 2
| alma_mater = University of Michigan (AB)
Notre Dame Law School (JD)
}}
Kym Loren Worthy (born December 5, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the prosecutor of Wayne County, Michigan since 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first African-American woman to serve as a county prosecutor in Michigan. She is most noted for prosecuting then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the beginning of March 2008.
Career
Worthy received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her J.D. degree from the university of Notre Dame Law School. She attended high school in Alexandria, Virginia and is a 1974 graduate of T.C. Williams High School.
She started as an assistant prosecutor in the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office in 1984. She served in this position for ten years, becoming the first African-American special assignment prosecutor under Prosecutor John O'Hair. Her most notable prosecution was the trial of Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers in the beating death of motorist Malice Green. Worthy had an over 90% conviction rate.{{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-14680137.html |title=Detroit's dramatic prosecutor (Kym Worthy, lawyer in Malice Green police brutality case)|access-date=2008-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080903052319/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-14680137.html |archive-date=2008-09-03 |url-status=live }} In 1994, Worthy was elected to the Detroit Recorder's Court (now the Wayne County Circuit Court).{{Cite web|title=About Kym Worthy, Current Wayne County Presecutor|url=https://kymworthy.com/about/|access-date=2020-07-24|website=Re-Elect Kym Worthy for Wayne County Prosecutor|language=en-US}} From 1994 until January 2004, Worthy was a judge on the Wayne County Circuit Court.
In 2004, Worthy was appointed Wayne County Prosecutor by the judges of the Wayne County Circuit Court bench to succeed now Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who had resigned to become the head of the Detroit Medical Center.{{cn|date=June 2024}}
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is by far the busiest in Michigan. There are 83 counties in Michigan yet Worthy's office handles 52% of all felony cases in Michigan and 64% of all serious felony cases that go to jury trial.{{Cite web |url=http://www.waynecounty.com/prosecutor/ |title=Wayne County, MI - Prosecutor of Wayne County |access-date=2008-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510071727/http://waynecounty.com/prosecutor/ |archive-date=2008-05-10 |url-status=live }} In 2013 Worthy sued Wayne County alleging that Wayne County Executive Robert A. Ficano had provided her with an insufficient budget to fulfill her duties as outlined in the Michigan State Constitution.{{Cite web |url=http://www.freep.com/article/20130401/NEWS02/304010100/Wayne-County-prosecutor-Kym-Worthy-cuts-start-to-affect-suburbs |title=Detroit Free Press article on Worthy's suit |access-date=2014-07-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924121943/http://www.freep.com/article/20130401/NEWS02/304010100/Wayne-County-prosecutor-Kym-Worthy-cuts-start-to-affect-suburbs |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=live }} In June 2014, she backed former Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans who defeated incumbent Robert A. Ficano in the Democratic primary for Wayne County Executive. Evans later won the general election.[https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/detroit/news/evans-claims-victory-over-ficano-wild-for-wayne-co-executive-other-races-called/ Evans claims victory over Ficano, ...], cbsnews.com. Accessed June 9, 2024.
Established programs
In 2009, Worthy began working on resolving a massive backlog of unprocessed rape test kits in Detroit, despite previous years of refusal to even allow assistant prosecutors to look for them for over a decade.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sakitta.org/waynecounty/|title=Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney's Office (Michigan) | Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)|website=sakitta.org}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/3000974/in-hot-pursuit-of-cold-cases/|title=In Hot Pursuit of Cold Cases|magazine=Time|author=Charlotte Alter|date=July 17, 2014|access-date=June 9, 2024}}
On August 17, 2009, assistant prosecutor Robert Spada discovered a massive number of kits sitting in a warehouse that the Detroit Police Department had used as an overflow storage facility for evidence. The 11,431 sexual assault kits languished in the DPD property warehouse from 1984 to 2009 without being submitted for testing. In one case, a 2002 rape was linked to a man who was incarcerated for three murders he committed in the seven years after the rape. As the City of Detroit was in bankruptcy and then-Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano would not provide funding for the project, Worthy turned to the Detroit Crime Commission, Michigan Women's First Foundation and the African-American 490 Coalition to form a public-private partnership to raise funds to test the kits.{{Cite web|url=https://enoughsaiddetroit.org/|title=Enough Said. Sexual Assault in Detroit.|website=enoughsaiddetroit.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/life/2016/08/16/kim-trent-woman-behind-african-american-challenge/88807258/|title=Kim Trent, woman behind African American 490 Challenge|first=Stephanie|last=Steinberg|website=Detroit News}}
Financial donations were made from all over the United States. The project received grants and funding from the National Institute for Justice, the State of Michigan and the New York District Attorneys Office. An important academic study of the project was authored by Michigan State University Professor Rebecca Campbell.{{Cite web|url=http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2015/detroit-solves-problem-of-untested-rape-kits-msu-report-finds/|title=Detroit solves problem of untested rape kits, MSU report finds|first=Michigan State|last=University|website=MSUToday}}{{cite web |url=https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248680.pdf |title=SAK Final Report |date=November 9, 2015 |website=ncjrs.gov |access-date=2020-07-25}}
In 2018, Worthy was featured in the documentary I Am Evidence.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/i-am-evidence-doc|title=I Am Evidence|website=HBO}} The documentary won a number of awards, including the Emmy in 2019 for the Best Documentary in the News and Documentary category.{{Cite web|date=August 10, 2019|title=Video showing Best Documentary Nominees and Winner|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM7dewCmGVA|website=YouTube}}
The 10th Anniversary of the Detroit Rape Kit Project was marked by a commemorative ceremony celebrating the completion of the testing of all of the rape kits, state legislation that sets out a time line for the submission of kits for testing and a statewide tracking system that allows victims to follow the progression of their kit for DNA testing.{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/michigan/articles/2019-08-10/event-to-commemorate-10th-anniversary-of-rape-kit-initiative |title=Event to Commemorate 10th Anniversary of Rape Kit Initiative |date=August 10, 2019 |website=usnews.com|access-date=2020-07-25}}
Worthy also established a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) in 2017 and became active in January 2018. As of 2017, it received over 700 requests for investigation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2017/11/13/wrongly-convicted-prosecutors-office-integrity-unit/859893001/|title=Battler for the wrongly convicted will join Wayne County Prosecutor's Office|first=Tresa|last=Baldas|website=Detroit Free Press}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.waynecounty.com/elected/prosecutor/conviction-integrity-unit.aspx|title=Conviction Integrity Unit|website=waynecounty.com|access-date=June 9, 2024}}
The CIU's function is to make recommendations to determine whether new evidence shows that an innocent person has been wrongfully convicted of a crime and to recommend steps to rectify such situations. As of June 2020, 19 prisoners had filed claims and been released from prison.{{Cite web|url=https://people.com/crime/richard-phillips-michigan-man-decades-prison-falsely-convicted/|title=A Michigan Man Spent Decades in Prison for a Murder He Didn't Commit — But Who Was the Real Killer?|website=PEOPLE.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.michiganradio.org/post/after-45-years-behind-bars-murder-richard-phillips-finally-officially-exonerated|title=After 45 years behind bars for murder, Richard Phillips is finally, officially exonerated|first=Sarah|last=Cwiek|website=www.michiganradio.org|date=29 March 2018 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.michiganradio.org/post/wayne-county-overturns-mans-wrongful-conviction-after-25-years|title=Wayne County overturns man's wrongful conviction after 25 years|first=Sarah|last=Cwiek|website=www.michiganradio.org|date=21 February 2020 }}
In December 2019, Worthy announced a partnership between the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office and the Wayne County Dispute Resolution Center to establish alternatives for charging adolescents and teens with low level crimes. The program is called Talk It Out.{{Cite web|url=https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2019/12/16/talk-it-out-program-in-wayne-county-could-give-juvenile-offenders-a-second-chance/|title='Talk It Out' program in Wayne County could give juvenile offenders a second chance|first=Evrod Cassimy, Kayla|last=Clarke|date=December 16, 2019|website=WDIV}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2019/12/16/youth-offenders-second-chance-detroit-mediation-program/2639802001/|title=Wayne County prosecutor announces diversionary program for youth offenders|first=Oralandar|last=Brand-Williams|website=Detroit News}}{{Cite web|title=Press Release - Prosecutor Worthy Announces Juvenile Mediation Program Talk It Out|url=https://www.waynecounty.com/elected/prosecutor/press-release-prosecutor-worthy-announces-juvenile.aspx|website=waynecounty.com|access-date=June 9, 2024}}
Controversies
In 2017, a documentary, White Boy, detailed evidence that high-ranking Detroit officials engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to unjustly imprison Richard Wershe Jr., a former FBI informant arrested for possession of 8 kg of cocaine in 1987, when Wershe was only 17 years old. Despite being a non-violent offender and a juvenile at the time of his sentencing, Wershe was held in a Michigan prison for 29 years. In September 2015, Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway ruled that Wershe's life sentence was unconstitutional and that he should be re-sentenced. Worthy objected to Hathaway's ruling and Wershe lost his appeal for re-sentencing. Worthy claimed she objected because Wershe was charged and convicted of operating a car theft ring in Florida when he was in prison there. One subject interviewed suggested that she was motivated by her "personal and professional" ties to former Detroit City Council President Gil Hill, subject of an FBI investigation for which Wershe was an informant. On August 26, 2016, Worthy changed her position after public pressure and news reporting about this conflict of interest. She did not assist in his release but did not object to his parole from the Michigan Department of Corrections after Hill's death in 2016.{{cite web | url=https://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/20091/video_prosecutor_worthy_denies_she_fought_white_boy_rick_s_parole_for_gill_hill | title=Video: Prosecutor Worthy Denies She Fought Rick Wershe's Parole for Gil Hill|access-date=June 9, 2024 }}
Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
In 2018, Worthy was inducted for her years of work as the Wayne County Prosecutor and specifically for her outstanding work on resolving the Detroit sexual assault kit backlog. The other inductees were Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Agatha Biddle and Clara Stanton Jones.{{Cite web|url=https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20180720/news/666496/dr-mona-prosecutor-kym-worthy-among-2018-michigan-womens-hall-of-fame|title=Dr. Mona, prosecutor Kym Worthy among 2018 Michigan Women's Hall of Fame inductees|date=July 20, 2018|website=Crain's Detroit Business}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0408/16/c01-243185.htm Detroit News], August 16, 2004.
{{Authority control}}
{{Michigan Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Worthy, Kym}}
Category:American women lawyers
Category:University of Michigan alumni
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:Notre Dame Law School alumni
Category:T. C. Williams High School alumni
Category:21st-century African-American lawyers
Category:21st-century African-American women