KrasnerForDA.com
With his May 16 victory in the Democratic primary for Philadelphia District Attorney, Larry Krasner aims to change the game of criminal justice in his home city and beyond, helping to redefine what it means to be a prosecutor. A progressive wind is blowing into the D.A.’s office, and none too soon, given current circumstances in the courts and in the prisons.
With support from George Soros, Black Lives Matter, and the progressive community, Krasner emerged from a crowded field to decisively win the primary. Unlike your typical D.A. candidate, he is a civil rights and criminal defense attorney rooted in securing justice for ordinary citizens, those who are often voiceless, disenfranchised, kept out the process, and have their rights violated.
Krasner, who faces a November 7 general election against Republican Beth Grossman and is favored to win in this heavily Democratic city, has sued the government and the police 75 times, and worked with countless defendants.
Krasner, who is favored to win in this heavily Democratic city, has sued the government and the police 75 times, and worked with countless defendants.
He is well aware of the injustices in a system of mass incarceration that preys on the poor and warehouses people of color, breaking up families and destroying communities in the process.
Krasner is also a vocal opponent of the death penalty, which he vows never to seek if elected. That is good news in a state that amassed one of the largest death row populations in the country, although the current governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, announced a death penalty moratorium. Seth Williams, the current Philly district attorney, and the city’s first black head prosecutor, has been a dismal disappointment. At first, it seemed that Williams would signal a departure from a prosecutor’s office that fed the justice system with an endless supply of young black and Latino men. But Williams challenged the governor’s death penalty moratorium, and became engulfed in a “pay to play” corruption scandal leading to his own federal indictment.
Lynne Abraham, Williams’s predecessor, worked to make Philadelphia a capital of mass incarceration. Having developed a reputation as “America’s deadliest D.A.,” she pursued death sentences with reckless abandon, particularly against people of color.
After all, until reform-minded prosecutors such as Larry Krasner came along, this was the only acceptable template for a district attorney—a law-and-order, tough-on-crime and “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” mentality that exploited public fears of crime and black and brown criminality to win votes and forge a stepping stone for higher office.
For years, this strategy worked, at least to help build the careers of ambitious lawyers and politicians. It served to expand the prison system and create an incarceration monstrosity that crippled state budget and diverted precious resources from social services, education, and infrastructure spending.
"We have tons of jails but not schools. We have seven times as many people in jail in Pennsylvania than in the 1970s.”
Now, Krasner sees reasons to be optimistic. “We are seeing more truly progressive prosecutors being elected, such as Kim Foxx in Chicago, Aramis Ayala (in Orlando), and others,” he says. “We also see progressive sheriffs and people like that. I suppose the question is why, and the answer is pretty straightforward: We have tons of jails but not schools. We have seven times as many people in jail in Pennsylvania than in the 1970s.”
District attorneys and state attorneys have considerable discretion in deciding who and what cases to prosecute. In practice, that often means the poor—who lack the resources to assemble their own dream team—are targeted for punishment, clogging the system with nonviolent drug offenses. Lacking political and economic power and possessing no bargaining chips, they are forced to take what they can get. And prosecutors hold all the cards.
The courts have become a McJustice system in which 95 percent of felony convictions are settled through plea bargains. system places a premium not on true justice and determining who is guilty or innocent, but on finality and moving bodies through the legal assembly line. Innocent people are imprisoned in the name of draconian sentencing and winning at all costs, even sent to death in the process.
What if district attorneys use their power for good?
Krasner has vowed to work with the police and the community to review harmful law enforcement practices, stop prosecuting minor offenses, put an end to cash bail imprisonment, and address addiction as a health issue in need of treatment rather than a criminal matter. Krasner has also promised to prevent wrongful convictions by sharing exculpatory evidence with the defense, and reviewing old cases and exonerating the innocent.
“Certain communities are affected by this and they get it,” he says. “ They want change. They don’t want to spend $40,000 per year sending someone who is addicted to drugs to jail.”.
This is a far cry from past D.A.s, and a good model for the future.