Kym Loren Worthy is the current prosecutor of Wayne County, Michigan, that is comprised of 43 jurisdictions. Detroit is the County seat, and the largest city. She is the first African American and the first woman to serve as a county prosecutor in Michigan. In 2004, Worthy was appointed by the judges of the Wayne County Circuit Court bench. 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.  

​

Worthy has the distinction of being the longest serving elected prosecutor of color in the United States and the longest serving elected prosecutor in Michigan. 

 

Worthy received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School. She attended high school in Alexandria, Virginia and is a graduate of T.C. Williams High School, the school featured in the movie, Remember the Titans. The school was later renamed Alexandria City High School.  

 

She began as an assistant prosecutor in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office in 1984, serving for 11 years and becoming the first African American special assignment prosecutor under Prosecutor John O’Hair. One of her notable cases was the prosecution of police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers in the beating death of Malice Green. She maintained an over 90% conviction rate. In 1994, she was elected to the Detroit Recorder’s Court (now the Wayne County Circuit Court) and served as a judge from 1994 until August 2003.

 

Since taking office as prosecutor, Worthy has implemented diversion programs that have moved over 25,000 adults and juveniles out of the criminal justice system. Adult programs include Diversion for First Time Offenders, Mental Health Court, Alcohol and Drug Court, and participation in Wayne County’s 24 treatment courts. Juvenile programs address truancy, youthful domestic violence offenders, and Teen Court. Since 2020, WCPO has partnered with the Wayne County Dispute Resolution Center on a juvenile mediation program called Talk It Out, offered as an alternate path for appropriate cases.

 

In 2009, Worthy began working to resolve Detroit’s backlog of unprocessed rape test kits. On August 17, 2009, 11,341 untested kits were discovered in a Detroit Police Department overflow evidence warehouse, dating from 1984 to 2009. From the inception of the project, she has emphasized a victim-centered approach: every kit tested, every kit investigated.

 

Because the City of Detroit was in bankruptcy and the 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. Donations also were given by citizens from all 50 states in the United States and nine foreign countries. The project received grants and funding from the Obama Administration’s Office of Violence Against Women, the National Institute for Justice, the State of Michigan, from Wayne County under CEO Warren Evans, Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation, and the New York District Attorney’s Office. An important academic study of the project was authored by Michigan State University Professor Rebecca Campbell.

​

In 2010, Worthy met actor and producer Mariska Hargitay at a Congressional hearing on rape kit backlogs held by then Judiciary Chair John Conyers. In September 2016, Worthy hosted the first Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Summit. In July 2018, she delivered a TED Talk, “What happened when we tested thousands of abandoned rape kits in Detroit”, which has been viewed over 1.7 million times.

 

In 2018, Worthy was featured in the HBO documentary I AM EVIDENCE. The Joyful Heart Foundation notes the film received two News & Documentary Emmy nominations in 2019 and won Best Documentary.

 

In 2018, Worthy was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame for her work as Wayne County Prosecutor and for resolving the Detroit Sexual Assault Kit backlog.

 

During her tenure, Worthy has maintained a robust Special Victims Unit that includes the Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Project, begun in 2009. In 2019, the 10th anniversary of the project was marked by a ceremony celebrating the completion of testing for all 11,341 kits, state legislation establishing timelines for kit submission, and a statewide tracking system that allows victims to follow the progression of their kit for DNA testing. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office reported that as of June

2024 there had been 257 convictions, and the cases have been linked to 40 states.

 

In 2016, Worthy and then-attorney Dana Nessel (now Michigan Attorney General) created the Fair Michigan Justice Project (FMJP) to assist Michigan law enforcement and prosecutors in solving serious crimes against LGBTQ individuals, reporting a 100% conviction rate for its cases. (WCPO’s FMJP overview is here: Fair Michigan Justice Project – LGBTQ Unit.)

 

After pursuing a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) for years, Worthy received funding in 2017 with support from Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans and the Wayne County Commission. WCPO’s CIU became operational in January 2018 and is headed by Director Valerie Newman. Worthy has stated: “We are committed to taking these new claims of innocence seriously and we need any and all additional resources we can muster.” The CIU investigates claims of actual innocence and cites ABA Rule 3.8(h) regarding a prosecutor’s duty to seek a remedy when clear and convincing evidence establishes a wrongful conviction. 

​

Worthy has been an adjunct professor of criminal law at the University of Detroit Mercy and has lectured at Harvard Law School, Notre Dame Law School, Wayne State University Law School, and the Université des Sciences Sociales in Toulouse, France.

​

She is on the Michigan Governor’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, the   Board of Directors for: the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan – Past President, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, the Sickle Cell Diseases Association of America – Michigan Chapter – Board Chair, and the Dearborn Figure Skating Club. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for United States Figure Skating. She has also served on the United States Figure Skating Ethics Committee and the Grievance Committee. She is the current national chair of their SkateSafe Committee. SkateSafe is a mandatory initiative that is designed to create a safe, abuse free environment for all members.

Worthy is a member of the National Black Prosecutors Association, Prosecutors Against Gun Violence, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Michigan Democratic Party, and Greater Grace Temple of Apostolic Faith.

 

Her hobbies include jigsaw puzzles, word games, film noir movies, and she is a life-long professional football fan. Her proudest accomplishment is being the mother of three daughters, Anastasia, 28, and 17-year-old twins Anniston and Alessandra.