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by Chris Brennan. Updated. May 6, 2021. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and his Democratic primary challenger, Carlos Vega, traded barbs and offered competing visions of criminal justice Wednesday night during their only televised debate.
Krasner also touted his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which has exonerated 20 people convicted under previous DAs. “This is a man who was in the office for 35 years, when it was a cover-up organization,” Krasner said of Vega, a former assistant district attorney Krasner fired when he took office in 2018.
Vega defended his work on the case, saying that he was brought in after prosecutors decided to retry Wright and that no disciplinary action was ever filed against him. Vega repeatedly said the city doesn’t have to choose between reform and safety.
Jim Beasley, Sr. and Marsha Santangelo tried a six-week-long medical negligence case on behalf of a brain injured child.
Sprague v. Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc.: $34 million libel verdict, the largest defamation award in Pennsylvania history. The Beasley Firm sued the Philadelphia Inquirer and won $34 million on behalf of Richard Sprague, who was accused of quashing a murder investigation when he was acting as Philadelphia’s Assistant District Attorney.
Sprague v. Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc.: $34 million libel verdict , the largest defamation award in Pennsylvania history. The Beasley Firm sued the Philadelphia Inquirer and won $34 million on behalf of Richard Sprague, who was accused of quashing a murder investigation when he was acting as Philadelphia's Assistant District Attorney.
Begin a free case evaluation with a Philadelphia defamation lawyer by calling (215) 866-2424!
McDermott v. PNI: $6 million libel verdict in a case where The Beasley Firm represented Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice James McDermott after a newspaper series titled “Above the Law,” accused Justice McDermott, and others on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, of corruption and unethical behavior. The jury deliberated for nine hours and awarded Justice McDermott $3 million compensatory and $3 million punitive damages.
Cipriano v. PNI: CONFIDENTIAL settlement (the Philadelphia City Paper said it was “widely rumored to be for as much as $7 million”). This case is the only known time that a reporter sued his own employer for libel. Ralph Cipriano was a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer for over 20 years; while working the religion beat, he had uncovered massive corruption in the Catholic Church. When Cipriano tried to have the Inquirer publish his story exposing the Archdiocese for extravagant spending while at the same time closing parochial schools, the newspaper’s editor refused to publish it. Reporter Cipriano had the article instead published in the National Catholic Reporter. When the newspaper’s editor was asked why the Inquirer hadn’t didn’t publish the piece, Cipriano’s boss accused him of writing false information.
Thomas Jefferson University and Feldman, M.D.: CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT for a libel suit against Dr. Henne’s employer, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, for defaming the emergency room physician’s name due to him refusing to preferentially direct patients away from their regular doctors and to Jefferson University to increase business to the hospital.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a champion of shaking up the criminal-justice system, easily turned away a Republican challenge on Tuesday to win a second term as a progressive prosecutor.
A veteran defense attorney before taking office, Krasner , 60, has sought to overhaul a system that he says put far too many people needlessly behind bars even as it covered up the the misdeeds of rogue police. Krasner says he wanted his staff to focus on the most dangerous criminals in the city while deemphasizing the pursuit of low-level offenders.
Krasner’s counter to that has consistently been to point out that gun violence was spiking in large cities around the country and that the coronavirus pandemic had been a driving factor. He also pointed toward his primary victory this year, when he won two-thirds of the vote and surged to even higher numbers in neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence.
Still, Philadelphia appears on track to see more than 500 murders in 2021, its highest total ever.
The Inquirer in March found that while arrests for illegal possession of a gun were on the rise, convictions for that crime had fallen since Krasner took office in 2018. Krasner in part blamed that on weak cases being presented by the Philadelphia Police Department, prompting critics to complain that he blames others before taking responsibility.
Krasner mostly ignored Peruto, refusing to debate him, giving the Republican’s campaign no platform from which to attack. He also pointed to a series of controversial statements the challenger made after announcing his candidacy in February.
Krasner barely campaigned for a second term after winning the Democratic primary in May, when he defeated a career prosecutor whom he had fired after taking office in 2018. The police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, which has repeatedly clashed with Krasner, had backed Krasner’s opponent and helped fund a political action committee that lobbed attacks on Krasner. The union resistance was considerably less in the general election.