City Budget
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham went before City Council today for her office's budget hearing. In addition to youth violence reduction and truancy, witness protection was a big topic.
By Alexandra Schmidt
 Listen Now [1 minute 3 seconds]
WHYY News, April 15, 2008
Eariler this year, 23-year-old Chante Wright was shot to death, allegedly to prevent her from testifying as a witness in the murder case of Hakeem Bey. That was despite her having been moved to another city under the witness relocation program and having had her last name changed.
District Attorney Abraham said today it's not surprising that people are still terrified of coming forward to testify. She went in front of City Council looking for an increase in the protection program's budget.
"To be honest with you I don't how much we'll really need, but if we start off with a million dollars and City Council and the Mayor announce a program to encourage people to come forward, maybe in the beginning they still won't come forward," said Abraham. "But they'll begin to dribble in once they know we have the resources to put people in places, to move them out of their current location and take whatever steps need to be taken to relocate them."
Last year, the DA's office received half a million dollars for witness relocation. Because Abraham says it's unclear exactly how much money will be needed in fiscal year 2009, the additional money would be take out of a discretionary fund as needed.
|
