Lawrence Krasner (Democratic Party) is the Philadelphia District Attorney in Pennsylvania. He assumed office on January 1, 2018. He assumed office on January 1, 2018. His current term ends on January 5, 2026.
Jan 14, 2022 · District Attorney of PhiladelphiaIncumbent Larry Krasner since January 1, 2018Term length4 yearsFormation1850First holderHorn R. Kneass 1 Who has been
Mar 22, 2021 · Krasner has drastically changed how the Philadelphia district attorney’s office had been pursuing and handling cases. For nearly 20 years beginning in the early 1990s, Lynne Abraham led the office and became known as one of the “deadliest” district attorneys in the country because of how frequently she sought the death penalty.
Oct 28, 2021 · It has been 30 years since the city last had a Republican district attorney. Just 21% of the city’s voters cast ballots in the May primary, when the Democratic contest was seen as more competitive.
Lawrence Krasner ( Democratic Party) is the Philadelphia District Attorney in Pennsylvania. Krasner assumed office in 2018. Krasner's current term ends in 2021. Krasner ( Democratic Party) is running for re-election for Philadelphia District Attorney in Pennsylvania. Krasner is on the ballot in the general election on November 2, 2021.
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Joshua Vaughn Mar 22, 2021. Three years ago, when Larry Krasner took office as the Philadelphia district attorney, he was something of a pioneer. He had promised to combat mass incarceration and undo the damage done by his punitive predecessors.
One man, Terrance Lewis, was arrested and convicted of murder in 1999, and exonerated and released in 2019. The district attorney, however, has faced criticism from the left and right for his office’s bail practices.
Krasner’s immediate predecessor Seth Williams sued newly elected Governor Tom Wolf in 2015 when the governor instituted a moratorium on executions. Williams said Wolf’s action was “flagrantly unconstitutional,” but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the moratorium later that year.
For Saleem Holbrook, executive director of the A bolitionist Law Center, abolition is the long-term goal . However, in the short-term, Holbrook said progressive prosecutors like Krasner are a form of harm reduction. “I have to look at the big picture here,” Holbrook said. “It’s a culture change.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that mandatory life sentences are unconstitutional for people who were children at the time of their crime. “As someone who that office tried to kill when he was 16 years old, it’s a 180,” Holbrook said of Krasner’s tenure, “and I can’t act like I don’t see that.”.
Krasner has not sought the death penalty in a single case—another promise he made while campaigning. He also supported an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the death penalty in Pennsylvania. In a brief to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Krasner’s office wrote that the death penalty disproportionately harms people of color and indigent people. According to Department of Corrections data, Philadelphians make up nearly a quarter of people on death row in the state. Of that number, 84 percent are Black and more than 90 percent are part of a racial minority group.
Since taking office, Krasner has pursued a policy of de-prosecution —the decision not to prosecute certain crimes regardless of whether they actually took place—as homicides have spiked. While Philadelphia experienced de-prosecution and rising homicides leading up to Krasner’s election, both trends have accelerated dramatically under his leadership.
Less appreciated is that a prosecutor’s power is absolute only in the authority to de-prosecute. If a prosecutor decides to move forward with a criminal case, he or she must still overcome several hurdles: an indictment or preliminary hearing, pretrial motions to suppress evidence, bench or jury trials, and appeals.
Houston's homicide rate was about 55-60% of Philadelphia's and Houston historically has a pretty high rate. There have been more homicides in the past year but Philadelphia is in a different league than almost all other cities, and St. Louis and Baltimore are on a different planet. see more. Show more replies.
De-prosecution has hit Philadelphia harder than some other cities. In some wealthy cities, such as San Francisco, the policy has led to massive public disorder but not increased homicides; the city’s comparative lack of poor neighborhoods with a history of violence militates against homicides.