As we celebrate March Women’s History Month, Our Time Press remembers the late Hon. Ken Thompson, King’s County’s first African-American District Attorney, elected to office in 2013.
He devoted his life to the pursuit of justice and worked hard to restore confidence in the criminal justice system.
At the time of Thompson’s death, Hon. Eric Gonzalez, then Chief Assistant Brooklyn District Attorney, said: “He was a giant among those seeking to reform the criminal justice system” and his leadership “transformed the office into a model urban prosecutors office with a mandate to do justice and treat everyone and every case fairly and with the utmost integrity.”
“Among his many initiatives, he created a model for correcting wrongful convictions, instituted a marijuana policy that would later be replicated citywide, and started a summons forgiveness program that would also be instituted in several other jurisdictions.”
In his early career, Thompson represented victims of pregnancy discrimination, as well as those, according to his biography, “who had been subjected to unlawful prejudice due to their race, gender, age, religion or sexual orientation.”
He worked on behalf of thousands, including Ms. Nafissatou Diallo, who had been sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss Kahn; Mr. Gregory McCullough and Ms. Judith Bailey, the victims of the Con Edison steam pipe explosion; and Ms. Sharon Simmons-Thomas, whose lawsuit exposed and put an end to the “shop and frisk” practices at a major department store.
Born on March 14, 1966, DA Thompson passed on October 16, 2016, after a valiant battle against cancer.
A special tribute to our friend and neighbor, initially scheduled to run in last week’s Our Time Press, on the anniversary of his birth, March 14, has been rescheduled. For an extensive bio, visit (brooklynda.org).
Photo: Bernice Elizabeth Green
