“My career has taught me that whatever the political pressure, you have to do the right thing,” says Willis, an African-American.
“And it doesn’t matter if you are in the state capitol or in the slums, you will have to be held accountable if you commit a crime,” the fifty-year-old insisted shortly after being elected to office.
Willis’s first contact with the world of law dates back to his earliest childhood.
She was born in California, but grew up in Washington, where her father, a lawyer and former member of the Black Panthers (a communist organization) often took her to court. She remembers that when she was eight years old, she was already ordering the files, both murder and drug cases.
Rather than displease him, this experience oriented his steps: he studied in the capital at Howard University, an institution historically with a high proportion of black students, and later at Emory Law School in Georgia. He graduated with a law degree, opened his own practice, and later joined the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
He handles often complex cases, including a falsified test results scandal at Atlanta public schools, homicides, and gangs.
It has also prosecuted the Atlanta rapper Young Thug under the so-called “RICO Law”, the same one on which it was based to incriminate Trump and 18 other people.
Trump, as he usually does with his adversaries, has given him a nickname: “Fani-La Falsa”.
Her Truth Social platform is brimming with pejorative adjectives about her: “Very underperforming”, “very corrupt”, “out of control” and even “RACIST”.
The former president and his campaign team accused her of having “campaigned and raised funds with (the motto) ‘I’m going for Trump.'”
At a rally, the former Republican president hinted that the prosecutor had an affair with a gang member.
Willis, who said he has received threats, trusts his work. “I refuse to fail,” he declared to the Wall Street Journal the mother of two daughters, who works from 6:30 in the morning until at least 7:00 p.m.