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  • Krasner hasn’t said a word about a growing exoneration controversy — but his own court filing does

    Krasner hasn’t said a word about a growing exoneration controversy — but his own court filing does

    District Attorney Larry Krasner didn’t attend the dramatic three-day evidentiary hearing recently in which four supervisors from his office testified about his conflicts of interest, job threats, and other inappropriate steps, following efforts to overturn a murder case.

    But Krasner’s take on the imbroglio can be found throughout a recent 47-page federal court filing by his office.

    The filing paints a picture of a district attorney unbowed by the controversy that has roiled his office. Krasner’s handling of the exoneration case has prompted one prosecutor in his office to step down following what they described as a loss of confidence in Krasner’s leadership. A federal judge presiding over the case also voiced concern about possible obstruction of justice, perjury, and criminal conspiracy.

    Despite admitting “serious errors” in the original motion that said Dennis Johnson was entitled to a new trial, the filing contains no contrition or introspection by Philadelphia’s DA.

    In the world according to Krasner, he’s right, and everyone else is wrong.

    Krasner’s worldview is hardened by his decades as a public defender and criminal defense attorney before getting elected district attorney in 2017. In the second paragraph of the filing, Krasner’s office blames prior district attorneys for violating “their constitutional duties” to secure convictions.

    The filing makes no apologies for how Krasner’s office handled the appeal by Johnson, who was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2009.

    After arguing for four years to overturn the verdict, Krasner’s office did a 180 in June, claiming its initial concession was “legally erroneous” and “not supported by the record.”

    The reversal came after U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond ordered an evidentiary hearing in May. That prompted supervisors in Krasner’s office to take a closer look at the case, in which they discovered “material omissions” in their initial concession claim.

    The day Larry Krasner’s office was put on trial — by his own prosecutors | Paul Davies

    The blunder stems from the failure of Krasner’s office to fully investigate Johnson’s appeal, and its willingness to go along with the arguments put forward by his defense attorneys.

    Here’s the bigger problem: That appears to be the way Krasner’s office has handled other post-conviction cases. Under Krasner, more than 60 people convicted — mainly of murder — have been set free or had their sentences reduced following concessions despite no incontrovertible proof of the person’s innocence.

    Instead, Krasner’s office has conceded other cases by not mounting a substantive challenge to the arguments put forth by defense lawyers. In many exoneration cases, defendants claim their cases were harmed by their own ineffective lawyers or by prosecutors who withheld evidence; the latter, known in legal circles as a Brady violation, constitutes a major breach of the court’s rules.

    Full steam ahead

    Judge Diamond has yet to decide if Krasner’s office can continue handling Johnson’s case, or if it should be turned over to the state attorney general because of the issues aired during the evidentiary hearing.

    Regardless of the outcome, Krasner appears determined to keep conceding cases.

    “The current [district attorney’s office] administration will continue to do its duty under Brady and to self-correct moving forward, regardless of how the instant matter resolves,” the filing said.

    The full-steam-ahead approach seems obtuse given the controversy that has engulfed the office’s handling of several post-conviction cases.

    In recent months, supervisors in Krasner’s office have been disbarred and suspended for lying in federal court while seeking to overturn the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a couple in their home in East Mount Airy.

    In June, the state Supreme Court ordered judges to ask the state attorney general’s office to review any cases in which Krasner’s office wants to alter a sentence or overturn a past conviction.

    That unprecedented ruling came after the high court found prosecutors in Krasner’s office misled judges in several post-conviction cases. The court said it could no longer trust the word of Krasner’s prosecutors.

    Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices (from left): P. Kevin Bobson, David N. Wecht, Christine Donohue, Chief Justice Debra Todd, Kevin M. Dougherty, Sallie Updike Mundy, and Daniel D. McCaffery. In June, the court ordered judges to ask the state attorney general’s office to review any cases in which Larry Krasner’s office wants to alter a sentence or overturn a past conviction.Provided by Jen Barker Worley/Ad

    Office strife

    Amid that major setback came the Johnson case, which has splintered Krasner’s office.

    After Judge Diamond ordered the evidentiary hearing in May, Katherine Ernst, the chief of training in the law division, reviewed the initial motion to concede Johnson’s conviction and found multiple errors.

    Ernst worked with three other supervisors — Steven Wildberger, David Napiorski, and Peter Andrews — who all agreed the motion needed to be withdrawn.

    They met with Jaclyn Mason, the assistant district attorney who signed the original motion, and urged her to withdraw the concession and apologize to the judge. Mason argued that her supervisor, Matthew Stiegler, was largely responsible and should also have to sign the motion.

    Fearing she would be forced to take the blame, Mason quit in June. That set off a chain of events that exposed the sloppy handling of the matter.

    Mason testified in July that Stiegler, the head of the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, colluded with defense attorneys to develop the legal rationale to have Johnson’s case thrown out.

    Mason, who was new to the DA’s office at the time of filing, testified she took direction from Stiegler, who told her that if Johnson’s claims were “good enough for the Innocence Project, it’s good enough for me.”

    To be sure, Mason bears some responsibility because she signed the motion and failed to fully investigate the defense claims. But her instinct that she would be thrown under the bus proved correct.

    The four other prosecutors testified last month that Stiegler proposed reviewing Mason’s other cases to find errors and tell the judge she was a “rogue” actor.

    Krasner backed that plan, telling the prosecutors Stiegler had a good idea.

    In the end, Krasner’s filing largely blamed Mason and said the judge “should not credit” her testimony.

    Posters featuring criminal justice analytics adorn the district attorney’s offices in May. The controversy over the handling of an exoneration case has splintered the office, Paul Davies writes.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    “Mason signed and filed a brief rife with errors that supported the defense’s request for a new trial,” the filing said. “Mason has admitted that she did not review the relevant records, including the trial transcripts, before supporting overturning a murder conviction; she may have simply cribbed and modified the filings of the defense attorneys.”

    The filing said Stiegler “failed” to detect the errors, but largely lets him off the hook. Krasner even went out of his way to change a footnote in an earlier motion that initially said Stiegler “edited several drafts” of the original Johnson filing to instead say he “supervised its preparation.” Stiegler remains in charge of the Conviction Integrity Unit even after other supervisors voiced concerns about him.

    What conflict?

    Meanwhile, Krasner remains adamant his office has no conflict of interest in the Johnson case even after four supervisors withdrew from the case, arguing that they and Krasner had conflicts after the internal machinations went from the legal merits of Johnson’s case to the self-interest of protecting the office.

    Krasner’s filing waved away their arguments and said the prosecutors who left the case acted “without authority or a reasonable legal basis to do so.” He added that he “did not appreciate” his team’s “repeated, unsolicited, and wavering advice” to refer this case to the state attorney general.

    The filing said any potential conflicts have been resolved by Krasner’s recent hiring of an outside attorney, Jean Peters-Baker, a longtime prosecutor from Missouri, to handle Johnson’s case. The AG’s filing argued that Krasner’s conflict can’t be cured by handpicking an outside prosecutor.

    Krasner’s candor problem started with his first exoneration win | Paul Davies

    Krasner’s filing did not address the testimony from his own prosecutors who said he warned them there would be “consequences” if they raised the conflict issue with the court.

    The prosecutors also said that Krasner refused to refer the case to the state attorney general because he wanted to “protect the office.” Krasner’s filing said his efforts to maintain control of the case were “entirely appropriate.”

    The filing did not specifically address Krasner’s comments revealed by the supervisors who testified that he called prosecutors in the attorney general’s office “Nazis.” But it shed light on his hatred for the state AG’s office.

    The filing explained that Krasner had a “general mistrust” of prosecutors in the AG’s office “based upon decades of observing their work.” Indeed, several prosecutors Krasner pushed out after he was elected now work in the AG’s office.

    The filing added that “any animus he may have toward individual employees of that office based upon their own actions and inactions has nothing to do with whether he correctly declined to refer a case.”

    Krasner is also apparently not a fan of Diamond, whom he views as a hostile judge, according to people familiar with the matter. Krasner’s contempt stems, in part, from the fact that Diamond spent four years in the DA’s office in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and was nominated to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush, a Republican.

    So, by Krasner’s logic, is everyone who ever worked in the DA’s office before him tainted?

    Krasner’s filing contained a footnote complaining the judge only provided a week, which included a holiday weekend, to address the disqualification issue. The filing added that any ruling that removes his office from the case would be “an abuse of discretion.”

    That seems like a particular failure to read the room given the credibility issues exposed in Krasner’s handling of exoneration cases.

    Judge Diamond’s ruling will likely have a lot to say about this fiasco.

    I’m not a lawyer, but Krasner’s filing doesn’t even seem like the way to win friends and influence people, let alone succeed in a legal argument.

  • To boost literacy, pediatricians are prescribing books to children

    To boost literacy, pediatricians are prescribing books to children

    Pediatrician Daniel Taylor opened a crisp hardcover book and began reading to a 5-year-old patient inside an exam room at the clinic at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

    “I am laughter that falls like —,” Taylor read, pausing.

    “Rain!” the little girl finished, smiling.

    “That was amazing,” Taylor said to the girl’s mother, LaShonda Williams, 35, of East Mount Airy. “That’s nice phonetic awareness.”

    Williams’ daughter, Xylo, already grasped context and recognized some words. Both crucial skills for school readiness as she prepares for kindergarten this fall.

    Xylo and her two siblings — 12-year-old Isaac and 9-month-old Xymia — each got a new book suited for their ages during Wednesday’s checkup. Seated on her mother’s lap, Xymia pointed to a carrot in the First Book of Colors, demonstrating a skill infants ideally master by age 1.

    Taylor is one of a growing number of pediatricians who are using books to measure developmental milestones, bolster literacy, and connect with families.

    LaShonda Williams and her children, 12-year-old Isaac and 9-month-old Xymia, read together during a checkup at the Center for the Urban Child at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    The program, “Reach Out and Read,” a national nonprofit literacy group that started in Boston, is celebrating its 25th year at St. Christopher’s in North Philadelphia and its 30th anniversary at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in West Philadelphia.

    Participating pediatricians model reading aloud for parents and prescribe reading to children during each well-visit from birth to age 5, although St. Christopher’s program extends into early teens. The children keep the books, building home libraries.

    “North Philadelphia is considered `a book desert,’ where there aren’t a lot of bookstores — i.e., none — and families don’t have a lot of children’s books in their homes,” Taylor said. “Just like food insecurity and trying to feed people food. Here we’re trying to feed people with words and books.”

    Caregivers often don’t have time or don’t feel safe traveling to their local library in city neighborhoods with high crime, Taylor said.

    Taylor helps run “Reach Out and Read” out of the hospital’s Center for the Urban Child, which he described as “an outpatient academic pediatric integrated practice” that sees about 48,000 children a year. There, families can access both medical treatment and social services.

    LaShonda Williams, 35, of East Mount Airy, with three of her four children during a checkup with pediatrician Daniel Taylor. Williams, a special education assistant teacher at Wissahickon Charter School, said she’s a big proponent of reading to her children.
    Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    The burgeoning brain

    The Pennsylvania chapter of “Reach Out and Read” has grown from three clinics at CHOP in 1996 to 264 pediatric practices today, mostly in the Philadelphia region. Now, local organizers say they plan to expand the program statewide by an additional 100 sites within the next few years.

    Pediatrician Trude Haecker, one of the founders of CHOP’s “Reach Out and Read” program, said parents who get a book during a well-visit are two and a half times more likely to read to their child. The research also shows that reading is an important part of the brain development that occurs within the first three years of a child’s life, Haecker said.

    “The brain is burgeoning, so in the first three years of life, 80% of your brain is formed,” Haecker said in an interview last week. “There’s a million neurons a second being formed in that first year of life, which is incredible. So having that ability to engage with that child changes that child’s brain.”

    Reading to your child also helps offset adverse childhood experiences, like divorce or substance use, Haecker said.

    “We’re also really changing that child’s lifetime trajectory,” she added. “It’s really magical.”

    A recipe for school success

    An estimated 46% of children in the Philadelphia school district are not prepared with the skills they need to start kindergarten. Those children lag in vocabulary, language, reading, and listening skills, according to Taylor.

    One of the greatest predictors of whether a teen will graduate from high school is how well they read by third grade, which is directly tied to their speaking skills at age 3, Taylor said.

    “So we’re trying to get as many books in the home as possible so that a 3-year-old is saying three-word sentences and a lot of words,” he said.

    Taylor said St. Christopher’s raised more than $120,000 last year for new books through its annual basketball tournament fundraiser. The program has given out nearly 1 million books, written in English and about a dozen other languages, since 2001, he said.

    “This is one of the most joyous things we do,” Taylor said. “It’s not giving shots; it’s giving immunization against potential future literacy issues.”

    Pediatrician Daniel Taylor, co-director of the “Reach Out and Read” program at St. Christopher’s Hospital, organizes the books he selects for his patients before entering an exam room. He has books in 12 different languages, including Urdu, Hmong, and Arabic. He also gives children culturally diverse books in which they can see themselves. More than 90% of his patients are Black or brown.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
  • Larry Krasner’s exoneration push faces a reckoning

    Larry Krasner’s exoneration push faces a reckoning

    No one should have to spend even a single day behind bars for a crime they did not commit. But in his zeal to right legal wrongs, District Attorney Larry Krasner lost the plot.

    Since first getting elected in November 2017, Krasner, a former defense and civil rights attorney, has pushed for scores of exonerations for people convicted mainly of murder. But, it turns out, most are not exonerations in which the convict’s innocence is proven through incontrovertible evidence, such as DNA.

    Instead, the DA’s office often sides with defense attorneys who claim some sort of procedural error, such as withheld evidence or inadequate defense counsel. In most of these cases, there isn’t a court hearing in which the new findings get presented, and witnesses testify under oath. Instead, the prosecutors offer what is known as a concession, which often results in dropping the charges and letting the person go free.

    But state and federal courts are starting to challenge Krasner’s tactics.

    In June, the state Supreme Court rebuked the DA’s handling of a case in which it was seeking to vacate a 2004 murder conviction of Laver Brown, who was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery following the shooting death of Michael Richardson, a Rite Aid worker at a North Philadelphia store.

    In July, former Assistant District Attorney Jaclyn Mason testified in federal court that Krasner’s office did not investigate the appeal of another convicted murderer and instead relied on the claims of his defense attorneys — and then encouraged her to lie about the lack of independent verification. Instead of going along with the scheme, Mason said, she quit.

    That hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond was continued to Aug. 27, where more damning testimony may come.

    The state Supreme Court has already seen enough. The court ordered the state attorney general to be allowed to review future cases in which Krasner’s office is seeking to overturn a conviction.

    “What we have seen in this case and too many others is the opposite of justice,” Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote in the scathing 109-page opinion.

    The high court found Krasner’s office misled the courts and submitted false statements when asking a lower-court judge to vacate Brown’s life sentence.

    In June, the state Supreme Court ordered Pennsylvania’s attorney general to be allowed to review future cases in which Krasner’s office is seeking to overturn a conviction.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    After his conviction, Brown’s attorneys said some earlier witness statements were not provided to his trial lawyer, which violated his right to a fair trial. Krasner’s office agreed and argued that the case file revealed a “pattern of prosecutorial misconduct” and requested Brown receive a new trial.

    But lawyers for the families of Richardson and a second man Brown was convicted of killing in a separate incident asked the state Supreme Court to intervene.

    Lawyers for the victims’ families argued that Krasner had a conflict of interest because two of his former law partners had been involved in Brown’s case.

    The high court ordered a hearing that shed a harsh light on the conduct of Krasner’s prosecutors.

    “We find the [district attorney’s office] … violated its duty of candor to the [Post Conviction Relief Act] court, withheld material evidence from the court, opposed efforts by [the victims’ families] to gain access to this evidence, submitted a false stipulation of fact, misstated facts in its pleadings, failed to conduct a reasonable investigation, and opposed a required evidentiary hearing,” Dougherty wrote.

    Whoa. What the heck is going on?

    The Supreme Court also found the prosecutors filed a joint document with Brown’s attorneys that “was false in multiple respects.”

    The court rejected claims by the DA’s office that it conducted a thorough review of the record in the case. Instead, the court said prosecutors “cut corners” and failed to interview a single witness or any of the original investigators involved in the case.

    The DA’s handling of Brown’s case is troubling enough. But it turns out this was not a one-off blunder. The Supreme Court found the case fit a disturbing pattern.

    “There have been numerous instances of untrustworthy concessions, lack of candor, misrepresentations of fact, lack of adequate investigation, and avoidance of hearings,” the opinion said.

    The Supreme Court went on to highlight problems with the DA’s handling of 10 additional cases, and said there may be many more.

    Krasner’s office is accused of lying and cutting corners to win exonerations — and the wrongly convicted could pay the steepest price | Editorial

    One case involved efforts by Krasner’s office to overturn the death sentence of Robert Wharton, who was convicted in the 1984 strangulation and drowning deaths of a couple in their East Mount Airy home, leaving their then-7-month-old child alone. She survived.

    The case eventually ended up before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In a unanimous decision, the panel found that Krasner’s office misled the court and “slant[ed] the facts” surrounding Wharton’s case before a lower federal court in 2019 in an attempt to vacate the death penalty and instead let Wharton remain in prison for life.

    Again, with the lack of candor.

    U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg denied the request and imposed penalties that required Krasner to write a letter of apology to the family of Wharton’s victims, which the appellate panel found were both “mild and fitting.”

    “Courts rely on lawyers’ honesty; lawyers may not mislead them,” Circuit Judge Stefanos Bibas wrote in the panel’s March 2024 opinion. “But the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office did just that.”

    Back to the state Supreme Court.

    After highlighting problems with the Brown case and 10 others, the court wrote, “These cases, and the present one, likely represent only a fraction of the [district attorney’s] problematic concessions since January of 2018.”

    The court said many of the DA’s concessions did not include hearings in which sworn testimony from both sides is presented, which the court wrote “is generally the best means to expose problems and ensure a reliable and just outcome.”

    For his part, Krasner was unrepentant. He issued a video statement following the Supreme Court opinion that leaned on his electoral victories to claim the ruling “undermines the value of a vote in Philadelphia as compared to every other county.”

    District Attorney Larry Krasner (left) and G. Lamar Stewart, head of the community engagement and government affairs division, at Independence National Historical Park in February.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Krasner added that social justice efforts like his often face a familiar pattern of resistance: “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 8½ years.”

    The district attorney’s website trumpets 59 “exonerations” by the Conviction Integrity Unit created by Krasner. But the National Registry of Exonerations said the total number of exonerations by the DA’s office during Krasner’s tenure is 75 — an extraordinary number given that reversing a conviction faces a high bar and often takes years.

    Nearly all of those set free have been Black men, underscoring how the legal system is often stacked against people of color. At the same time, no new charges have been brought in those cases, leaving killers and other wrongdoers walking the streets.

    There is no denying systemic racism exists across our legal system, including in Philadelphia. I witnessed abuses and failures of cops, prosecutors, lousy defense attorneys, eyewitness misidentifications, and forced confessions up close as a reporter covering the courts years ago for the Wall Street Journal.

    I wrote a story about a Latino man who was convicted of murder in the Bronx, N.Y., despite having a solid alibi: On the night of the murder, he was in prison in the Dominican Republic.

    That’s all to say wrongful convictions happen, and sending someone to prison for a crime they didn’t commit — or worse, putting them to death — is the most heinous abuse of the legal system imaginable.

    That’s why I welcomed Krasner’s efforts to review cases in which misconduct or errors may have occurred.

    But the sloppy work by Krasner’s office has undermined his theory of the case. Sadly, those who have been truly wrongfully convicted will be the ones to suffer because judges will no longer trust the DA’s office.

    When judges in state and federal courts and former prosecutors in Krasner’s own office are citing similar patterns of corner-cutting and lying, there is a serious problem.

    Krasner built his career on demanding accountability from the system. He owes Philadelphians no less from his own office.

  • Booker Rowe, celebrated trailblazing Black violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, has died at 85

    Booker Rowe, celebrated trailblazing Black violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, has died at 85

    Booker Rowe, 85, of Philadelphia, award-winning violinist, the first Black musician to play with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Nashville Symphony String Quartet, the second permanent full-time Black player in the Philadelphia Orchestra, teacher, mentor, and role model, died Friday, July 31, of complications from pneumonia and sepsis at Jefferson Abington Hospital.

    A lifelong musician — he played piano at age 5 and violin at 11 — Mr. Rowe was invited by famed music director Eugene Ormandy in 1968 to become the first Black musician to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was a substitute violin during most of the 1968-69 season and returned for good in 1971 as the orchestra’s second Black permanent full-time member.

    Mr. Rowe stayed for 49 years.

    “My first day, I came in late from New York, and the orchestra was already rehearsing, and I sat myself down on the last stand to play,” Mr. Rowe told The Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin in 2020. “The sound was amazing. It was like stereo all around me. The stage was slanted down, and when the brass and winds would play I had to brace myself with my right leg from being blown off stage. It was just so beautiful.”

    For five decades, until his retirement in 2020, Mr. Rowe played with half a dozen elite conductors and traveled the world in the orchestra’s second violin section. He and his colleagues gave thousands of memorable performances at the Academy of Music, the Kimmel Center, and the Mann Center in Philadelphia, Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

    They played at the 1993 World Series at Veterans Stadium, for Pope Francis in 2015, and at the Vail Music Festival in Colorado. They played in Europe, South America, Asia, and elsewhere around the world.

    This photo of Mr. Rowe (left) appeared in the Daily News in 1993Newspapers.com

    In 1973, the orchestra made a historic 10-day, five-concert cultural exchange tour in China, and Mr. Rowe told the Daily News afterward that he visited a commune and returned with Chinese instruments. In 2008, he mingled with former Secretary of State Alexander Haig and other international notables after a concert in Beijing.

    In 2013, he posed for pictures with the Chinese welcoming contingent at Shanghai Airport. “Booker was such a kind soul, and his passion, his artistry, and his humanity are woven into who we are,” Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the orchestra’s music and artistic director, said in a tribute.

    Ryan Fleur, the orchestra’s president and chief executive officer, said: “He was a warm and steadying presence in our orchestra.”

    Born in Kentucky, Mr. Rowe and his family moved to North Philadelphia when he was 2. His father was a singer, and his mother played piano, and they “pushed me in the direction of classical music,” he told the Daily News in 1981.

    He became concertmaster for the West Philadelphia High School orchestra, the All-City high school orchestra, and the old all-Eastern Conference college orchestra. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music at Temple University in 1963 and a master’s degree in music at Yale University in 1968.

    Before Philadelphia, he played solo in New York and with symphony orchestras in Nashville, New Haven, Conn., and Washington. Later, he played with the old Symphony Club of Philadelphia, the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra, and other local groups.

    Mr. Rowe (left) stands with fellow musicians Andre Watts (center) and Renard Edwards.Courtesy of the family

    He also got freelance gigs with Sammy Davis Jr., Isaac Hayes, Smokey Robinson, the Supremes, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, and other stars. He played with chamber music ensembles around the country and gave dozens of free concerts for children, churches, and community and scholarship fundraisers.

    He championed racial and ethnic diversity, and was active with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s cultural diversity initiative. He sought and performed work by Black and other minority composers, and mentored dozens of colleagues and students.

    He encountered at least one racist incident that first year in Philadelphia and told the Daily News in 1981: “The time was right for an Afro-American in the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was just a matter of finding somebody who was ready.”

    Mr. Rowe and his family lived in Center City, East Mount Airy, and Germantown. Courtesy of the family

    A friend said on Facebook: “His legacy and historical contributions are unparalleled.”

    Mr. Rowe taught at Settlement Music School and gave private lessons. He earned music and service awards from City Council, the American Foundation for Negro Affairs, and other groups.

    Booker Rowe’s career with the orchestra started with a call out of the blue in 1968 from Eugene Ormandy

    In 2019, he was asked to advise young musicians in a video interview for the Philadelphia Orchestra website, philorch.ensembleartsphilly.org. “Practice, practice, practice,” he said. “But also enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. Do it with love in your heart.”

    Booker Taliaferro Washington Vance Rowe Jr. was born Dec. 10, 1940, in Lexington, Ky. In Philadelphia, he studied at the old Philadelphia Musical Academy and Settlement Music School, and his father worked at RCA Victor records in Camden. So their home was always filled with music.

    Mr. Rowe (rear center) stands with Philadelphia Orchestra colleagues and members of the Chinese welcoming contingent in 2013.

    Jan Regan / Philadelphia Orchestra

    He met soprano Patsy Baxter at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert, and they married in 1970 and had a son, Landis, and a daughter, Vivian. They lived in Center City, East Mount Airy, and Germantown, and visited his family often back in Kentucky and Tennessee.

    Mr. Rowe enjoyed puzzles, hiking and kayaking with his family, and tai chi. Friends noted his “kindness,” “million-dollar smile,” and “cheerful presence” in Facebook tributes.

    Why did best-selling author Carol Saline email The Inquirer’s obit writer?

    “He liked people,” his wife said. “He liked socializing. He liked to stick with one thing and concentrate on it.”

    His son said: “My father and I always had a good time together, and we never knew when playful sparring would break out.”

    Mr. Rowe and his wife, Patsy, married in 1970.
    Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    His daughter said: “He was very fiery and lovable. He was always who he was. He was one of a kind.”

    In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Rowe is survived by a daughter-in-law, Maria, two granddaughters, and other relatives.

    A celebration of his life is to be held later.

    Mr. Rowe (rear second from left) enjoyed time with his family.Courtesy of the family
  • Philly schools could get A/C and heat from geothermal energy, study says

    Philly schools could get A/C and heat from geothermal energy, study says

    A new study shows it is possible to tap the earth for more efficient heating and cooling for two Philadelphia School District buildings at once, providing a potential path to cleaner energy.

    If such a system is ever installed, it could serve as a template for other clean energy efforts.

    Philadelphia Gas Works set out last year out to examine whether it was technically possible to build a geothermal HVAC system that would serve both the John F. McCloskey Elementary School and the Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center in East Mount Airy.

    Findings were released on Wednesday.

    The study estimated that a closed-loop geothermal system for these facilities would cost about $19 million. But that could drop to $11 million with federal tax credits.

    With the tax credits, a geothermal system would be less expensive to install than a traditional HVAC system for the two properties.

    Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, built in 2010, has geothermal heating and cooling. Although PGW supplies gas to the school, it was not involved with the geothermal system.

    At McCloskey, PGW paid for the study and worked in collaboration with the school district and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. PGW, which is owned by the city, is the largest municipally owned gas utility in the country.

    “PGW is committed to helping the City of Philadelphia lead to a clean energy future,” said Elliot Gold, vice president of corporate planning at PGW.

    The McCloskey school, which was built in the early 1950s, and Emanuel rec center are next to each other on the same roughly six-acre property with a combined 77,000 square feet of interior space. Though Philadelphia Parks and Recreation operates the rec center, it is on district property.

    A closed-loop geothermal system is essentially a big heat pump that uses the constant underground temperature through buried pipes. A mixture of water and environmentally safe antifreeze is pumped through the loop, creating a large heat exchanger that can be used to heat and cool a building. The heat exchanger is set to either absorb or eject heat.

    A new study shows that it is feasible to install a new geothermal HVAC system to serve the John F. McCloskey Elementary School and the Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center in East Mount Airy. Frank Kummer

    An ‘ideal partnership’

    Victoria Flemming, executive director of the school district’s office of environmental management and services, said the study is a positive step that aligns with the district’s GreenFutures Plan.

    The McCloskey school currently has an aging oil-based heating system and no central air-conditioning, she said.

    “It is using heating oil, which has low energy efficiency and has a high impact to air quality,” Flemming said. “So I think those were the two things that made this kind of an ideal partnership.”

    During periods of extreme heat, the school is forced to pivot to virtual learning and cancel student activities, she said.

    The shared property between the school and rec center would give a geothermal project an even higher impact, she noted.

    Seen at the John F. McCloskey Elementary school are (from left) Teresa Fleming, COO of the School District of Philadelphia; Victoria Flemming, executive director of the office of environmental management and services for the district; Neal Babcock of Alderson Engineering; and, Elliott Gold vice president of corporate planning for PGW.Frank Kummer

    Less expensive than a traditional system

    Bucks County-based Alderson Engineering conducted the study.

    To install a geothermal system, conditions underground need the right combination of thermal conductivity and geology. Neal Babcock, a principal with Alderson Engineering, said the site meets those conditions.

    Geothermal systems might be more expensive up front, he said, but in the long run are less expensive to operate and maintain.

    Currently, geothermal systems are eligible for the federal Investment Tax Credit. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 terminated credits for solar and wind projects but preserved credits for geothermal systems.

    “Geothermal systems reduce the total energy consumption to heat and cool the building,” Babcock said. “Instead of burning fossil fuels like natural gas, they use the cool temperature of the ground to be less extreme than the air temperatures or needing to burn fossil fuels.”

    Compressors for the geothermal system studied would be powered by electricity, not natural gas.

    Environmental and advocacy groups have been critical of PGW’s reliance on natural gas, saying the utility needs to diversify its energy portfolio and reduce greenhouse gases that help heat the earth.

    PGW said the study is part of its efforts to do that.

    Neal Babcock of Alderson Engineering discusses the feasibility of installing a new geothermal HVAC system to serve the John F. McCloskey Elementary School and the Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center in East Mount Airy.Frank Kummer

    Will it ever get built?

    The study was just a first step. There is no time frame to install such a system, nor is funding in place.

    And it is unclear who would own the system. That is important because the tax credits would apply only to a single-owner system.

    Gold, the PGW vice president, said that although some of the challenges might seem steep, the utility is serious about clean energy projects.

    “We’ve completed the feasibility study, which is good news,” Gold said. “It tells us that this is favorable and that there are no definite technical showstoppers.”

    He said the next steps include addressing who would own the system, the cost, and a timeline.

    That timeline would likely include the tax credits for geothermal units, which are set to phase out in 2034 and 2035.

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    Who would pay for it?

    The school district typically finances such projects through its capital spending plan for its 300 buildings.

    If it owned the geothermal system and had to pay for it, that could mean balancing it against the needs of making fixes at other schools.

    The district has said it wants to spend $3 billion on upgrading facilities but can pay for only $1 billion now.

    For instance, conditions at Southwark Elementary in South Philly are so dire that kids are begging City Council and the district for fixes, such as working bathrooms and pest control. They are supposed to get them in 2032.

    Teresa Fleming, the district’s chief operating officer, said the district is still evaluating the study and must consider the long term.

    She said a program like geothermal has the potential to “yield energy savings and greater efficiencies throughout the district.”

    Editor’s note: This story has been updated to change the date the findings were released.

  • Prosecutor drops rape charges against a prominent Philadelphia doctor

    Prosecutor drops rape charges against a prominent Philadelphia doctor

    A prosecutor dropped felony rape and sexual assault charges against Philadelphia-area doctor John Smyth Michel on Tuesday after his accuser failed to appear at his criminal trial.

    The woman’s testimony against Michel, the former medical director of Excel Medical Center, was key because the case lacked physical evidence. The then-38-year-old patient from Northeast Philadelphia had claimed Michel raped her during a 2024 office visit.

    Michel’s criminal defense lawyer, Andrew Gay Jr., told jurors the sex was a “terrible” mistake but consensual.

    “As terrible of a decision as it could have been for a physician to make,” Gay said during his opening statement Monday on the trial’s first day, “it was an entirely consensual act between two adults.”

    Gay declined to comment on Michel’s behalf after Common Pleas Court Judge Chesley Lightsey dismissed the case at the prosecutor’s request.

    “This case is done,” Lightsey declared before excusing the jury empaneled at the city’s Criminal Justice Center.

    The stakes were high for the 56-year-old doctor from Jenkintown on two fronts: He faced up to 20 years in prison on the rape charge alone and loss of his medical license, if convicted.

    Under state law, doctors convicted of sexual offenses are prohibited from being licensed and practicing medicine.

    The Pennsylvania State Board of Osteopathic Medicine, which regulates and oversees licensure of osteopathic doctors like Michel, suspended his license last year after he apologized for having sex with a patient — a violation of state licensure laws. As of Tuesday, his license remained suspended, according to a state spokesperson.

    Excel Medical Center, which Michel founded, is currently closed, Gay said. The center was composed of 12 locations in the Philadelphia region, with more than 200 employees and about 20,000 patients.

    In a letter to the medical board last year, Michel described the October 2024 sex with the patient as a “lapse in judgment” for which he is “profoundly contrite.”

    “I fully acknowledge that I crossed a professional boundary,” Michel wrote to board members last year. “I recognize that boundaries are not only a legal and ethical obligation but a critical element of safe, respectful, and therapeutic care. I make no excuses for my actions.”

    Claims of rape

    The patient, identified in police records by the initials “D.R.,” had accused Michel of kissing her during a May 2024 exam at his East Mount Airy office on Stenton Avenue. She told him “no,” left the office, and did not report the kissing incident.

    About five months later, she went to an appointment at Michel’s North Philadelphia office on West Diamond Street. During the Oct. 14, 2024, visit, she said, Michel raped her with such force that her head banged twice against the exam room wall. She pushed him off her and fell to the ground crying, according to criminal court records.

    In early November 2024, she told her husband what had happened and subsequently filed a police report, records show.

    Late last year, a second woman accused Michel of sexual abuse. The woman had worked for Michel as a medical assistant from 2015 to 2019 at his East Mount Airy office and at a location in Germantown on Chelten Avenue.

    The former employee claimed that beginning in 2018, Michel touched her breasts over her clothing on multiple occasions while she was working in the office. He additionally groped her vagina over her clothing before she quit in 2019, according to a document filed in court last year by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

    Prosecutors never charged him in connection with those accusations, but argued the former employee’s claims bolstered their patient rape case, given there were no witnesses. Gay, Michel’s lawyer, had declined to comment after the second woman came forward.

    A no-show witness

    In the patient’s case, Philadelphia police arrested Michel in February 2025 after prosecutors charged him with three felonies — rape, sexual assault, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse — and two misdemeanors — indecent exposure and assault. He was released on bail.

    Assistant District Attorney Allison Christian dropped all but the rape and sexual assault charges prior to the trial. Michel pleaded not guilty.

    The former patient had been scheduled to testify on Tuesday morning. Christian told the judge that she had spoken with her the night before. She sounded “very emotional” and seemed to be having a “nervous breakdown,” but said she would testify, Christian said.

    “I’ve been calling her since 8:15 a.m. this morning every 15 minutes,” Christian said. “I haven’t heard from her.

    “I’m not going to issue a bench warrant for a rape victim,” she said before dropping the charges.

    A path to practicing medicine

    Prior to the patient’s accusations, Michel had no criminal complaints and no disciplinary history against his medical license, state records show.

    Michel agreed to be disciplined by the board of osteopathic medicine for violating a state law prohibiting sexual misconduct, according to a June 2025 agreement.

    The discipline included a $4,000 civil penalty and an indefinite suspension of his medical license for a minimum of 24 months, followed by probation, according to a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees licensing boards.

    While Michel is on probation, a chaperone must be physically present when he treats female patients and a separate monitor must oversee his practice. Michel also must complete in-person classes on physician-patient boundaries and 15 hours of continuing education on ethics, the disciplinary agreement says.

    The state spokesperson on Tuesday said the board will reinstate Michel’s license to “non-suspended, probationary status” once he has met the agreement’s reinstatement conditions.

  • They went to Mount Airy ‘on a whim’ and found love to last decades

    They went to Mount Airy ‘on a whim’ and found love to last decades

    Over more than 25 years, Jean Miller and Craig Heim have transformed their East Mount Airy home, a 1907 Dutch Colonial, through countless renovation projects.

    “But no matter what state the house was in, whatever was torn apart or upended as we did a project, it’s always been an amazing house to come home to,” Heim said. “We are always happy to come in the front door.”

    The facade surrounding that front door was the most recent project. They painted it a bold purple and updated the porch, shutters, and shingles.

    Miller said she had always wanted a purple house. “It makes the house pop.”

    The exterior of Miller and Heim’s home and their front garden are bursting with color.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
    The porch railing and soffit are painted purple and yellow.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
    The home was covered in asbestos shingles when Miller and Heim bought it, and they uncovered the original cedar shakes.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    The couple bought the seven-bedroom, 2½-bath home in March 2000, and moved in that spring after some initial work. At the time, they were renting near the Italian Market in South Philly and planned to buy there.

    “On a whim, we looked in Mount Airy after friends mentioned a huge house for sale nearby. Once we saw the neighborhood and how much space we could afford — including a yard — we shifted our search to Mount Airy,” recalled Miller, a physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Heim works for human services nonprofit Face to Face in Germantown.

    Over the past two decades, they updated nearly every part of the 3,200-square-foot house and its garden, as they raised their two children. Sara, 22, is a Penn graduate who now lives in South Philly, and Pete, 20, is a sophomore at Michigan State.

    Miller said the living room and dining room are favorites. The spaces are made cozy by a wood-burning fireplace, also a backdrop for entertaining.

    Art and instruments line the walls of the living room, as Maddie the dog enjoys the couch.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
    The dining room has red walls and crown molding.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    When they moved in, Miller recounted, the home’s living and dining rooms had already been altered, losing their original woodwork. A wall with pocket doors had likely been removed and replaced with folding screen doors. The rooms were painted red with white trim.

    “We designed a wooden arch, installed larger crown molding, and removed a non-original built-in cabinet in the dining room,” said Miller. “Fortunately, the contractor removed it in sections and discovered it had been supporting the house’s main beam after studs had been taken out.”

    They decided to keep the red walls and, after testing many samples, chose a trim color in greenish gold that gave the rooms a completely different look.

    The home boasts an eclectic mix of furniture that they acquired from family, vintage shops, and what Miller described as “trash picking.”

    Paintings and photographs by local artists line the walls along the staircase.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
    Art fills nearly every inch of this wall in the living room.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    An abundance of art hangs on the walls, loosely grouped into collections. Miller has dedicated one whole wall to “works from family and local artists.”

    “We use every space to display art and objects.”

    Back when Miller and Heim bought the house, the kitchen appeared to have been last renovated in the 1960s. The sheet-vinyl floor was torn and the subfloor so soft, it crumbled to dust when they pulled it up, recalled Miller.

    As a temporary fix, they installed veneered plywood, adding lines and nail marks to mimic wide-plank hardwood, and sealed it with polyurethane. They also painted the cabinets and walls. Those quick fixes held them over until a full kitchen renovation. A neighbor who is an architect designed the new kitchen, transforming it to include a bright breakfast room filled with natural light.

    Tiles and wall sculptures line an arch into the kitchen’s breakfast nook.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
    A portrait of Jean Miller and Craig Heim’s dogs, Maddie and Mabel, is on display in the sun-filled breakfast area.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    “The kitchen was definitely a game changer, and it still feels new to me after 17 years. I love walking into it and feeling the brightness and natural light,” said Heim. “It’s the hub for so much of what happens every day and for special occasions, a very natural gathering place.”

    Outdoors, the garden is a treasure trove of found objects combined with topiary and plantings to create an eye-catching mix. The large porch leads to the front garden.

    “It connects us to our neighborhood and neighbors,” Miller said. “Our garden is a destination for many on their walks and allows us to connect with people. It feels like an outdoor room.”

    A path of stones runs through the garden.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
    A planter the family trash-picked is filled with and surrounded by potted flowers.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    The creativity inspiring the garden also shines through in the house’s bold facade.

    “When the house recently needed to be repainted, we wanted to do something with a bit more pop,” Heim said. “So, we added the golds and pink to give things a little more zip.”

    For holidays, they decorate the yard with inflatables, lights, and ornaments.

    A hedge painted and shaped into a “happy bull” grows in front of the home. Heim often spray paints and cuts the hedges into shapes or characters.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
    Decorative oversized ants are arranged as though climbing up a tree in the front garden.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    Mount Airy now holds a special place in both of their hearts. They enjoy an easy walk to the train, Germantown Avenue’s commercial strip, the Wissahickon, and Chestnut Hill.

    “We have a tight-knit group of neighbors, many long-term residents from our era and even earlier, and a whole new generation of younger people with kids,” said Miller. “It’s a wonderful community.”

    Is your house a Haven? Nominate your home by email (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.

  • Pa. Supreme Court blasts DA Larry Krasner’s office, saying it misled judges in seeking to vacate old murder convictions

    Pa. Supreme Court blasts DA Larry Krasner’s office, saying it misled judges in seeking to vacate old murder convictions

    In a forceful and scolding opinion, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office misled the courts, “violated its duty of candor,” and submitted false statements when asking a judge to vacate a 2004 murder conviction.

    In the opinion released Tuesday, Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote that prosecutors’ pattern of misleading judges in seeking to overturn murder convictions is so troubling and recurrent that, going forward, before Krasner’s office seeks such relief, judges must notify the state attorney general’s office and allow it to review the case.

    The decision amounted to one of the most scathing rebukes yet of Krasner’s efforts to revisit decades-old convictions, and arrives amid intensifying scrutiny of the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit and appeals division, whose handling of post-conviction cases has drawn criticism from judges in both state and federal court.

    Just last week, Krasner’s office reversed course in a separate murder case, writing in a federal court filing that one of its prosecutors had made “material misstatements” and submitted “legally erroneous” statements when seeking to overturn a man’s murder conviction. The office sought to withdraw its recommendation to grant the defendant a new trial.

    And in December, a panel of federal judges voted to disbar a supervisor in the office’s appellate unit, saying he “lied repeatedly” while seeking to overturn the death sentence of a man who killed a couple inside their East Mount Airy home, then left their infant daughter inside to die.

    Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Justices Kevin Brobson, Christine Donohue, David Wecht, Debra Todd, Sallie Updyke Mundy and Kevin Dougherty in 2023.Provided by Administrative Offic

    By giving the state attorney general authority to intervene when Philadelphia prosecutors decline to defend a conviction, the high court added a new layer of oversight to the state’s largest prosecutor’s office — a rare step that reshapes who controls post-conviction litigation in Pennsylvania.

    Krasner, in a video statement shared late Tuesday, said the high court’s ruling “undermines the value of a vote in Philadelphia as compared to every other county.”

    In the video, which featured images of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, Krasner compared the pushback to his criminal justice reform efforts to those of other social justice movements.

    “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 8½ years,” he said.

    While four justices — Dougherty, Sallie Updyke Mundy, P. Kevin Brobson, and Daniel McCaffery — agreed there are systemic concerns about the district attorney’s office, three — Debra Todd, Christine Donohue, and David Wecht — supported neither that narrative nor the court’s remedy.

    Wecht cast the lone full dissent, arguing that the case did not warrant the Supreme Court’s intervention and that the lower courts already have the tools necessary to prevent improper concessions by prosecutors.

    The case at the center of the court’s ruling was that of Lavar Brown, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in the robbery and shooting death of Michael Richardson, a North Philadelphia Rite Aid worker, in 2003.

    Brown was later convicted of shooting and killing a second man, Robert Crawford, in 2005, and was sentenced to death — in part because of the first conviction.

    In this 2019 photo, Kristi Richardson looks at photos of her husband, Michael Richardson, who was shot and killed during a robbery at the Rite Aid where he worked in 2003.JULIE SHAW / Staff

    In post-conviction court filings, Brown’s attorneys said the prosecution’s case in Richardson’s killing largely relied on the testimony of two witnesses — including one who, in a statement to police, implicated a teenage girl who was incarcerated at the time of the murder. The witness’ earlier statements were never provided to his trial lawyers, the attorneys said, which violated his right to a fair trial.

    In 2021, Krasner’s office said Brown should be granted a new trial, arguing his case had been “infected by serious misconduct” by past prosecutors.

    When a Common Pleas Court judge later granted Brown a new trial, the families of Richardson and Crawford took the unusual step of asking Pennsylvania’s highest court to intervene.

    The families said Krasner had a conflict of interest because two of his former law partners had previously been involved in Brown’s case. They also argued the district attorney’s office was trying to “circumvent” the courts by conceding relief in the Rite Aid killing, which had served as an aggravating factor for his death sentence.

    A photo of Robert Crawford in the home of his sister Suzette Crawford March 27, 2019. Robert was shot to death in Philadelphia in December 2003. His killer, Lavar Brown, is on death row.TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

    The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in March 2025. And on Tuesday, six justices agreed that Brown’s conviction should not have been overturned and ordered a new hearing in the case.

    Dougherty, in writing the majority opinion, was scathing in his assessments of prosecutors’ conduct.

    In a case involving a murder conviction and death sentence, he wrote, the district attorney’s office’s “fidelity to its duty of candor should have been at its zenith. Regrettably, it was anything but.”

    The opinion said prosecutors did not disclose a memorandum in which a key witness, Ronald Vann, identified Brown as being involved with the murder, even as they asked Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn Bronson to vacate the conviction.

    Instead, the court said, they asserted that the document was irrelevant to Brown’s claims.

    Krasner’s office also tried to keep the victim’s families from accessing it.

    But the memorandum was “unquestionably relevant” to the case and showed a consistency over time of Vann’s statements, the opinion said. That Krasner’s office would say otherwise “rings hollow and smacks of post hoc rationalization,” the court said.

    “The memorandum would have poured salt on the ‘fertile ground’ for impeachment envisioned by the DAO,” the ruling said, adding that withholding the document was a “breach of its duty of candor” to the court.

    The high court also said prosecutors filed a joint stipulation with Brown’s attorneys that “was false in multiple respects,” including mischaracterizations of the timeline of witness statements to police.

    The justices said prosecutors had not interviewed a single witness or investigator who had handled the case, and rejected their claims that it had conducted a “thorough, independent review of the records in this case.” Krasner’s office, the court said, “cut corners and shirked its duties in conducting its post-conviction ‘investigation.’”

    The court reversed Bronson’s order granting Brown a new trial.

    To “promote just outcomes” moving forward, the opinion said, the courts handling appeals must notify the attorney general’s office of any case in which Krasner’s office plans to seek relief, and give state prosecutors the opportunity to review it and weigh in on whether the decision is appropriate.

    A lawyer for Brown could not be reached for comment. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project, which had filed a brief supporting Brown and the district attorney’s office alongside dozens of other prosecutors’ offices, former judges, and defense attorneys, declined to comment.

    Da Larry Krasner speaks during a May 2026 press conference. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    Chris Lynett, the lawyer who represented the families of Richardson and Crawford, said the high court’s opinion supported their belief that Brown’s case — like others — had not been scrutinized closely enough by prosecutors.

    “We can’t just say that if we feel uncomfortable with a conviction that we are going to overturn it,” he said. “You need a full record, you need honesty, and you need an evaluation.”

    Lynett, who worked as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia for five years before leaving the office in 2020, said its leadership needs to “think about what they’re doing and what they’re encouraging their line prosecutors to do in court.”

    The attorney general’s office had filed an amicus brief in support of the families, arguing that, since 2018, Krasner’s office agreed to overturn convictions in 115 cases with little to no meaningful opposition to defendants’ claims.

    Attorney General David Sunday, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday that his office is grateful to serve “as a check on this process for the citizens of Philadelphia and ensure that the interests of victims’ families are represented.”

    When an investigation shows that a defendant was wrongfully convicted, his office said, prosecutors have a duty to remedy the situation — through the established court processes.

    “As the Court noted,” his office said, “this case is about the failure of the process in Philadelphia, both as to this defendant and many others.”

    Krasner, for his part, stood by his office’s policies. Philadelphia is on track to record the fewest homicides in recent memory, he said in the video, and correcting past mistakes builds trust in the criminal justice system.

    Acting as an adversary in overturning wrongful convictions, he said, “doesn’t help safety, it doesn’t help democracy, it doesn’t help freedom, but that’s OK. Because we know where we are in the fight, and once we get past the fight, we all win.”