Assistant District Attorney Sarah Boyette, Supervisor of the Alternative Relief Unit (ARU) in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, is a Northeast Philadelphia native. She brings a deep sense of purpose, intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to challenge convention to the work she does at the DAO. Boyette, who describes herself as a “strange kid” in her formative years, traces her early interest in criminal justice to a seventh-grade classroom experience, where performances of 12 Angry Men and readings of To Kill a Mockingbird sparked a fascination with fairness, doubt, and the complexities of the criminal justice system. Though that interest ebbed and flowed through her early education, it ultimately reemerged during law school, where she found herself drawn to criminal law.
A graduate of Yale and Harvard, where she attended as a scholarship student at both schools, Boyette interned with the Federal Defenders Office in Philadelphia in the summer of 2008 and later with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office in the summer of 2009. These roles sparked her passion for representing criminal defendants, whom she viewed as an often marginalized and misunderstood population.
“I felt like if I could do this work, I had a duty to do it,” she said, describing the sense of obligation that emerged while working with incarcerated clients.
Boyette began working as a public defender in Brooklyn in 2011 following graduation from Harvard Law. While there, Ken Thompson, a reform-minded candidate, was elected District Attorney. Boyette’s former law school mentor, Ron Sullivan, joined Thompson’s administration to revamp the office’s Conviction Review Unit (CIU). “If you could just get in and see those files, imagine the good that you could do,” she recalled thinking at the time. Thompson’s reform-minded approach demonstrated to her the potential for prosecutors to play a meaningful role in correcting wrongful convictions and reforming the justice system more broadly. This experience would influence her decision to move from public defense to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Boyette’s eventual return to Philadelphia was both personal and professional. After relocating with her family and clerking for a judge in Camden, she found herself inspired by the election of District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose reform-oriented vision aligned with her own values. Though initially uncertain about crossing from defense to prosecution, Boyette joined the office in 2018 and ultimately found her place in the Conviction Integrity Unit. She developed a niche expertise in complex, nontraditional post-conviction matters in the CIU. This work would later form the foundation of Boyette’s Alternative Relief Unit.
As supervisor of that unit, Boyette has focused on cases that fall outside conventional legal pathways, including clemency petitions, commutations, parole advocacy for individuals serving life sentences, and compassionate release for terminally ill incarcerated people. Her work reflects a broader philosophy: that the justice system should not only adjudicate guilt, but also create pathways for mercy and human dignity. For Boyette, the law is not merely a profession but a calling to public service; an opportunity to reduce harm and expand the conditions under which people can live fuller, freer lives.
Out of the office, Boyette finds joy spending time with her husband and two daughters; her extended family members reside in the Philadelphia area. She also describes herself as a ‘foodie.’
“Food brings me joy in life. Most days I am excited to see what is the Pop Tart of the week at Molly Malloy’s. Most of my Instagram feed is weekly specials.”