He said the newspaper's reporting this month "vindicated and validated what I've been saying for the last five years."
Williams, an assistant district attorney for 10 years who ran unsuccessfully for the top job in 2005, has been a longtime critic of District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham.
He has cited a federal study of conviction rates in 39 large urban counties that ranked Philadelphia last in two consecutive reports. The Inquirer series went beyond that study in an analysis of 31,000 criminal cases from 2006 to 2008, finding that Philadelphia defendants walk free on all charges in nearly two-thirds of violent-crime cases.
Williams detailed a series of changes that he predicted would distinguish his leadership from Abraham's. Referring to the city's low conviction rate, he said: "If that's the best you can do, then step aside. I'm glad I got the job. My administration won't be Lynne Abraham-lite."
Abraham, who will step down next month after 18 years in office, has rejected The Inquirer's statistical analysis and said that "you can't do justice by the numbers."
Any prosecutor, she said in a recent interview, could boost conviction rates by refusing to take on difficult cases or giving criminals sweetheart deals in return for guilty pleas.
Abraham said her philosophy has always been that every case is vitally important to the victim - and her staff.
Williams, 42, a Democrat, will take office Jan. 4 as the first African American ever to hold the post.
He said he would:
Appoint a new top deputy of policy, planning, and performance whose duties would include making public an annual statistical report on conviction rates.
Abraham has kept no such figures, eschewing a "justice-by-the-numbers" approach.
