Kym Worthy

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Kym L. Worthy (1957- ) is the current prosecutor of Wayne County, Michigan. She is the first African-American to serve as a county prosecutor in Michigan. She has received a large amount of notice since filing charges against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the beganing of March, 2008, however this is only one of many cases her office has been involved in.

Worthy received her bachelors degree from the University of Michigan and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Worthy started as an assistant prosecutor in Wayne County in 1984. She served in this position for ten years, trying over 800 cases. The most notable was the trial of Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers in the beating death of Malice Green. Among the cases Worthy had go to trial her conviction rate was over 90%.^[1] From 1994- January 2004 Worthy was a judge on the Wayne County Circuit Court.

Worthy was apointed Wayne County Prosecutor to replace Michael Duggan who resigned to become the head of the Detroit Medical Center.

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.^[2]

Early in her time as county prosecutor Worthy was criticized for giving too many plea deals to people involved in gun crimes.^[3]

Worthy has also been criticized for not charging any police officers with murder during her tenure in office.^[4]

Worthy has also at times had her prosecutions hampered by the indeptness of the Detroit Police Crime Lab.^[5]