PHILADELPHIA, PA - One of the most radical Soros-funded district attorneys in the country by far, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, appears to finally be getting his comeuppance after years of abusing the criminal justice system, Fox News Digital reports.
In what can be considered a stunning but overdue rebuke of Krasner’s office, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a 4-3 opinion, ordered Krasner’s office to be placed under outside scrutiny over its post-conviction concessions, including one where the Court found Krasner’s office’s handling of one convicted murderer’s case was unreliable, but said problems extended far beyond that one case.
The opinion saw two Democrats, Kevin Dougherty and Daniel McCafferty, joined by two Republican judges, who wrote that in the case of Levar Brown, a Philadelphia man whose murder convictions became part of a legal fight over Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit and the office’s apparent willingness to concede relief in serious criminal cases, Fox News Digital reported.
The decision overturned a post-conviction order in Philadelphia that granted Brown a new trial after Krasner’s office conceded his conviction should not stand, a decision that was approved by a Philadelphia judge. The high court also ordered that going forward, any Philadelphia judge handling post-conviction challenges must notify the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and allow that office to intervene before granting relief in any case where Krasner’s office decides to have a conviction overturned.
While the ruling doesn’t hand control of the cases to the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, it creates a new court-ordered check on Krasner’s office in future post-conviction matters.
“The prosecutor does not decide whether a defendant is entitled to relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act,” Dougherty wrote for the majority. He emphasized that judges must be allowed to independently determine if a conviction should be overturned even when prosecutors agree with the defense.
The judges ruled that the concession offered by Krasner’s office in the Brown case “was not reliable,” finding that Krasner’s office gave relief when it was not warranted by the existing record, withheld material evidence from the court, submitted a false stipulation of fact, misstated facts in its pleadings, failed to conduct a reasonable investigation, and opposed a required evidentiary hearing.
Krasner has a long history of being soft-on-crime and has repeatedly let serious criminal offenders off either with light sentences, or dropping their cases completely. He is an unhinged leftist who recently threatened to “arrest” ICE agents if they showed up at the airport and “commit[ed] crimes.” That was when ICE agents were deployed to some airports nationwide to assist TSA agents during the government shutdown.
In their decision, the court said that if the Brown case was an isolated incident, it wouldn’t have justified the broader remedy. The majority opinion said the concerns were evident in other post-conviction cases as well.
In the past eight years, Krasner’s office has conceded relief “well over 100 times,” mostly in murder cases, the opinion noted. In addition to those, there are evidently more than 1,000 cases still waiting to be reviewed by the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
The impetus for the court’s decision came when family members of two murder victims, Michael Richardson and Robert Crawford brought their concerns about Krasner’s decision to retry Brown 20 years after he was convicted of murdering Richardson and Crawford by two separate juries, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
In pushing for a new trial, Krasner’s office conceded that relief was due without having an evidentiary hearing.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday praised the high court’s ruling in a statement, writing that his office will now serve as a check on the process for Philadelphia’s residents and victims’ families.
“As prosecutors, our role is to advocate for victims of crime, for public safety, and for justice,” Sunday said in the statement. “Centuries of experience teach that the best way to achieve that justice is through the adversarial process, with vigorous representation for both sides.”
Sunday’s office noted that the court concluded Krasner’s office’s concession in the Brown case was “not reliable” and “recognized that similar concessions in numerous other cases also appeared to be unreliable.”
“The Court directed judges to notify the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General of any concessions before granting relief, and to permit the Office of Attorney General to intervene in future cases where the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office attempts to concede a conviction,” the office said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Sunday’s office which said it is assessing what the ruling will mean for its workload, budget, and personnel.
“We are assessing what yesterday’s Supreme Court of Pennsylvania order will mean for our office’s workload and what impacts it may have on our budget and our personnel,” the Attorney General’s Press Team said in a statement. “Given the many unknowns involved, including the number of cases concessions will be made in and our response to those concessions, it may be difficult to fully assess these impacts until the process truly begins.”
The AG’s office also said it appreciates the court using the AG’s office to “serve as a check on this process for the citizens of Philadelphia and ensure that the interests of victims’ families are represented.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Krasner’s office for comment; however, none was received. However Krasner posted a video defending his “reform” agenda and called the ruling an anti-democratic move that treats Philadelphia differently from other counties.
Perhaps that is because other counties aren’t letting criminals back out on the streets like Krasner is doing as part of his “criminal justice reform” efforts.
In the video, Krasner attempted to frame criminal justice reform as part of a broader social justice movement, and we’ve seen how good social justice is working in cities like Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
“Reform can be scary to those who need it,” the obnoxious Krasner said in the video. “Which part don’t you like? The safety or the freedom?”
“The truth is that criminal justice reform is a national social justice movement,” the self-loathing Krasner said. “And like all other social justice movements, it follows a certain pattern. First they ignore you. We’re past it. Then they laugh at you. We’re past that. Then they fight you. And we have been fighting for eight and a half years. And then the next step–we got to get there–is you win.”
Krasner framed the Supreme Court decision as a “close” one that ruled when his office supports a defense position that someone deserves a new trial or release from custody, “we need to have the attorney general’s office looking over our shoulder unlike every other county.”
“Does that help democracy? No,” Krasner said. “It actually undermines the value of a vote in Philadelphia as compared to every other county,” he whined.
Krasner’s dramatic framing of the Supreme Court’s decision does not comport with reality, with the court saying Krasner’s office is still free to litigate cases as it sees fit, but an independent assessment conducted by the AG’s office will “enhance the reliability” of post-conviction proceedings and their subsequent decisions.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice David Wecht claimed the majority was inserting the AG’s office into local post-conviction proceedings, thereby interfering with the discretion of Krasner, who was elected to that position. The majority, however, rejected that line of reasoning, saying the AG’s role wouldn’t override the DA’s discretion, but instead would give courts the benefit of an adversarial process before convictions are overturned.
The ruling now sends Brown’s case back to Philadelphia’s post-conviction court for further proceedings, and sets a new process for future cases where Krasner’s office wants to concede relief.
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