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Tag: Larry Krasner

  • Philly DA Larry Krasner taunts House Republicans in Washington after getting a subpoena

    Philly DA Larry Krasner taunts House Republicans in Washington after getting a subpoena

    WASHINGTON — Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, thumbing his nose at national Republicans on the morning after they subpoenaed him, rallied protesters on Capitol Hill on Thursday as one of his counterparts in Virginia, who had also been compelled by a subpoena from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, prepared to testify behind closed doors.

    Taunting both Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), the committee chair, and President Donald Trump outside the building where the committee meets, Krasner railed against Republicans generally and the ongoing legal maneuvers he said are intended to ensure progressive prosecutors like him “roll over and play dead.”

    “Jim Jordan, can you hear me?” he asked as he stood before a crowd of mostly Virginians outside the Rayburn House Office Building. “Why don’t you come out here? We miss you. We haven’t seen you, and apparently, you don’t like us when we’re with you in public.”

    The monthslong war of words escalated on Wednesday, when Jordan ordered Krasner’s office to produce documents about its handling of immigration issues. The Republican-led committee requested the documents in May as it accused the district attorney — as well as Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal — of protecting criminal immigrants through sanctuary policies.

    Republicans have similarly targeted multiple jurisdictions, including Arlington County and the city of Falls Church, in Virginia’s Washington suburbs.

    The committee subpoenaed the area’s top prosecutor, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, in March for documents related to protests outside the home of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller. After a back-and-forth in which Dehghani-Tafti requested a public hearing, the committee wrote in a July 1 letter that it was compelling her to appear to answer questions about “politicized interference in a doxxing investigation and your preferential treatment of illegal immigrants accused of criminal conduct in your district.”

    “I’m here because I respect the law, and I’m here because I upheld the rule of law,” Dehghani-Tafti said Thursday as she walked by the gathering of about 75 people, some of whom wore shirts and held signs reading “No Secret Hearings.”

    Krasner said the committee was afraid to conduct the questioning in a public setting because Dehghani-Tafti, whom he described as a top-notch prosecutor and communicator, would “wreck them.”

    “And they are not just trying to do it to her,” Krasner said. “They’re trying to do it to a whole bunch of us — pretty much anybody who they see as standing in their way.”

    Krasner did not otherwise address his own subpoena while speaking in Washington.

    Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the committee said Thursday: “We look forward to Mr. Krasner’s compliance with the subpoena.”

    In an interview after his speech, Krasner said it was important for him and other local prosecutors, some of whom were in attendance Thursday, to join together to show that “none of us are backing down.” He said that he has the same legal representation as Dehghani-Tafti to deal with the situation, and that if he was compelled to testify he would answer the committee’s answers truthfully.

    “I’d be shocked if these cowards wanted a public hearing,” Krasner said. “Not because I’m so important, but because the questions are so stupid, and the truth harms them so much.”

    In a private setting, he said, the committee can control any transcripts or videos and decide when and how to make them public. He compared the situation to “Putin’s Russia,” mocked Jordan for not completing law school, and repeatedly called Trump the “criminal-in-chief.”

    Krasner also alleged that part of the reason he and others are being targeted is because of their ability to prosecute state-level crimes, for which Trump does not have the power to pardon. That includes potential crimes related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and former Trump associate who died in 2019.

    “Make no mistake, Epstein class, we are coming for you,” Krasner said in shouting distance from federal lawmakers. “We’re coming for you now, or we’re coming for you later.”

    Epstein’s private islands were in the U.S. Virgin Islands and his mainland home was in Florida, outside Krasner’s jurisdiction in Philadelphia.

    Late Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia, Krasner said he was in the process of complying with the subpoena.

    “It encompasses an infinite number of documents, many of which they’re not entitled to have, but there’s little doubt they’re entitled to have some of them, and what the law requires is what we’re going to do,” he said. “It is very likely that sooner or later we’re going to turn over some documents.”

    He derided Jordan as “the criminal-in-chief’s little helper” and accused the House committee of being on a “silly mission” to try to show fault with how honest prosecutors are handling immigration issues in their jurisdictions.

    “If they want to mess with Philly, they’re going to come through me,” Krasner said. “My job is to protect Philadelphians. I’m going to do that. We’re not going to have ICE agents or federal agents murdering people on the streets of Philadelphia with no consequence.”

    This month ICE agents fatally shot two men in six days during traffic stops in Texas and Maine.

    The House committee gave Krasner a July 29 deadline to provide the documents it requested. In a letter Wednesday, Jordan said Krasner’s “refusal to cooperate” included “bizarre and baseless demands and conditions.”

    “The Committee has no obligation to entertain your unreasonable demand because as federal courts have explained, it is exclusively the prerogative of the Committee to determine how and in what manner it conducts its oversight,” Jordan wrote.

    Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.

  • House Judiciary Committee issues subpoena to Philly DA Larry Krasner, demands immigration records

    House Judiciary Committee issues subpoena to Philly DA Larry Krasner, demands immigration records

    The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday, ordering him to turn over documents related to his office’s handling of immigration matters and criticizing what it called the prosecutor’s “pro-illegal-alien policies.”

    The Republican-led Congressional committee said in a letter that it sent the subpoena after Krasner, a Democrat, promised but failed to provide materials that were requested in May.

    The committee, in a letter signed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), its chair, accused Krasner of declining to prosecute or under-prosecuting foreign nationals so that they could avoid consequences connected to their immigration status. The committee said it was asserting its authority to try to end sanctuary-city policies in cities including Philadelphia.

    In response, Krasner called the subpoena “yet another step in authoritarian efforts to do dirt in the dark” and to put pressure on state prosecutors.

    “We have always complied with the law and will continue to do that,” Krasner said Wednesday. “That makes us different from [President Donald] Trump, who spends all day, every day, violating the law of the U.S. Constitution ― and morality.“

    Krasner and the House committee have sparred since May, when the panel accused top city law enforcement officials of shielding criminal immigrants through sanctuary policies and demanded that they quickly turn over a trove of related records and correspondence.

    That represented an escalation by Trump-allied Republicans in their criticism of Philadelphia government on rules concerning undocumented residents, particularly around limiting city cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    In April, City Council approved high-profile “ICE Out” legislation aimed at restricting immigration enforcement in Philadelphia, putting the city at the forefront of local resistance to Trump’s deportation campaign. The Trump administration challenged part of that package of bills, and this month a federal judge ruled that the city could not prevent ICE agents from concealing their identities.

    In May, in letters to Krasner, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, the Judiciary Committee accused each of hindering federal immigration enforcement. Each letter sought up to six years of immigration communications between their agencies and immigration officials and, in the sheriff’s case, with activist groups including No ICE Philly, Juntos, Asian Americans United, and others.

    The Trump administration has clashed with cities and states that embrace sanctuary policies, contending they are hurting Americans and threatening to cut their federal funding. Philadelphia has long been among the targets.

    Krasner had responded by telling the committee, which said it was conducting oversight of state and local jurisdictions that it believes endanger Americans by not assisting immigration agents, that such policing powers belong to the city.

    “The legal errors are unsurprising,” Krasner wrote to Jordan and to Rep. Tom McClintock (R., Calif.), chair of the subcommittee on immigration, noting that neither had passed the bar. “The factual errors are also unsurprising, given your histories of adhering to wholly repudiated, counterfactual and unscientific election denialism, climate change denialism, and the like.”

    Krasner wrote that he needed time to address each of the committee’s allegations and requests, and was working to hire a lawyer who would be in touch soon.

    In July, Krasner wrote the committee and encouraged it to “question me in public so all Americans are able to see who is telling the truth.”

    The committee’s “fear of such a public airing only makes clearer your lack of real purpose and your complicity in peddling lies,” such as, he said, that local and state prosecutors “rather than President Trump’s ill-conceived deportation actions are responsible for criminals going free.”

    Immigrants are far less likely to commit and be arrested for crimes than U.S. citizens, Krasner noted. But the small number of immigrants who commit serious crimes are being deported by ICE before they can stand trial and be sentenced, given “a ‘get out of jail free’ card and a plane ride to another country, a country where they will never face American justice.”

    The committee told Krasner on Wednesday that time to provide the requested records had run out. Its subpoena directs him to turn over the materials by July 29.

    “Although you may disagree about the need to reform federal law to end sanctuary policies … you cannot seriously contend that the committee lacks the authority to do so,” the committee wrote, adding that Congress may amend statutes “to ensure that prosecutors cannot circumvent immigration law and allow aliens to escape accountability for their crimes.”

  • Pa. lawmakers have only days to set sentencing guidelines for felony murder cases. Hundreds of cases are on the line.

    Pa. lawmakers have only days to set sentencing guidelines for felony murder cases. Hundreds of cases are on the line.

    State lawmakers left Harrisburg on Sunday without approving a new sentencing structure for second-degree murder convictions, all but ensuring Pennsylvania will miss a court-imposed deadline to replace a law the state’s highest court struck down as unconstitutional because it barred judges from weighing individual culpability.

    The legislature’s failure makes it exceedingly likely that judges across Pennsylvania will soon have to sentence people convicted of second-degree murder without a legislatively enacted sentencing range to guide them. It also sets the stage for what is expected to be years of litigation over the roughly 1,100 people already serving mandatory life-without-parole sentences.

    The political stalemate leaves thousands of people — incarcerated Pennsylvanians, victims’ families, and attorneys — waiting to learn what happens next.

    “In the absence of a law, there’s going to be a lot of chaos and a lot of confusion,” said Sean Damon, director of strategic partnerships for Straight Ahead, a decarceration advocacy organization.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro said Sunday that he agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the mandatory sentencing law as unconstitutional, but had hoped lawmakers would reach a compromise before leaving Harrisburg.

    Shapiro said he spent much of the final two days of session trying to bridge the divide between House Democrats and Senate Republicans. Though no agreement emerged, he said that House procedural maneuvering left a legislative vehicle available should negotiators eventually strike a deal before a July 24 deadline to rewrite the law.

    “I’d like to see the legislature act on this and not just leave it up to every individual county to act,” Shapiro said.

    ‘Someone’s going to need to act’

    Until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in March, the state was one of only two that still required life without parole for every second-degree murder conviction — a category of homicide that generally applies to deaths committed during certain felonies, including cases in which a defendant played a role in the crime that led to the death.

    In their decision, the justices said courts must consider the facts of each case and the defendant’s culpability before deciding on a punishment.

    But the high court stopped short of deciding whether its ruling applies retroactively to people already serving those sentences. And it delayed implementing its decision for 120 days to give lawmakers time to rewrite the law.

    Since March, judges across the state have postponed sentencing defendants convicted of second-degree murder while awaiting action from the General Assembly.

    That action never came.

    Lawmakers adjourned for the summer with 12 days remaining before the Supreme Court’s stay expires and with no realistic path toward a compromise. Republicans and Democrats spent months advancing competing visions for replacing the unconstitutional law but failed to bridge deep disagreements.

    Senate Republicans twice approved legislation that would replace the mandatory sentence with a minimum term of 35 years to life, allowing parole eligibility after 35 years — or after 20 years for prisoners at least 70 years old.

    House Democrats backed legislation that would cap future second-degree murder sentences at 50 years while allowing many people already serving mandatory life-without-parole sentences to seek parole after 25 years. The proposal, supported by the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Defender Association of Philadelphia, and District Attorney Larry Krasner, never advanced to a vote in the House.

    House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said Sunday that Democrats have a legislative path prepared, so when they reach an agreement they can swiftly pass it and send it to Shapiro’s desk.

    Asked whether that could happen before July 24 despite no additional voting days currently scheduled, Bradford replied: “We’re hoping to get something accomplished.”

    Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday urged lawmakers this weekend to reach an agreement before the deadline, warning that failing to enact a new sentencing law would leave courts without clear guidance and could allow some people now serving life-without-parole sentences to become immediately eligible for release.

    “It is dangerously inadequate for the House to allow the deadline to pass without a substantive and realistic proposal that includes sensible sentencing ranges with the option of a life sentence for the most serious offenders and protections for the victims of these horrible crimes,” Sunday said.

    Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R., Cambria) voiced similar concerns during a committee meeting Saturday.

    “Someone’s going to need to act in the House, or else this risks 1,100 violent offenders being released onto the streets of our commonwealth that we cannot afford to have,” he said.

    A ‘free-for-all in the courts’

    The Supreme Court cannot create a new sentencing range itself because establishing criminal penalties is the legislature’s responsibility. But advocates say Pennsylvania has already faced a similar situation.

    After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional, Pennsylvania enacted a new sentencing law that applied only to future cases. Four years later, when the high court ruled that decision applied retroactively, judges had to resentence hundreds of incarcerated people without legislative guidance.

    Many attorneys expect a similar pattern after July 24. Judges will continue sentencing people convicted of second-degree murder on a case-by-case basis until lawmakers or appellate courts provide clearer direction. At the same time, attorneys representing people already serving mandatory life-without-parole sentences are expected to begin seeking new sentencing hearings.

    Because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not decide whether the decision applies retroactively, that question is also expected to return to the justices.

    “We reasonably believe that if this matter is brought to them [the justices] again, they will mandate mass resentencing,” said Damon, of Straight Ahead.

    Some criminal justice advocates argue that individualized sentencing hearings before judges are preferable to replacing one mandatory sentencing scheme with another because judges are better positioned to weigh a person’s role in a crime, rehabilitation while incarcerated, and risk to public safety.

    “Even though it will be a free-for-all in the courts,” said Celeste Trusty, a consultant for criminal legal reform organizations and former state legislative affairs director of FAMM, “people serving the now-unconstitutional mandatory life-without-parole sentences would also likely fare better” under individualized resentencing than under the failed bill.

    Even so, the absence of a statewide framework is likely to place enormous demands on courts, prosecutors, and public defenders, particularly in Philadelphia, where more than 500 people are serving mandatory life-without-parole sentences for second-degree murder — about half the statewide total.

    Keisha Hudson, chief defender of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, estimated each resentencing would require about $40,000 in attorney time, investigators, mitigation specialists, and other resources — roughly $24 million if every potentially eligible Philadelphia case returned to court.

    She said defenders are expected to shoulder much of that work but lack the resources to handle the oldest cases, including about 30 that predate the creation of the office’s homicide unit in 1993.

    Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner did not respond to an interview request.

  • Nearly $6 million of cocaine bound for Philly intercepted as part of citywide bust, DA Krasner says

    Nearly $6 million of cocaine bound for Philly intercepted as part of citywide bust, DA Krasner says

    Law enforcement officials seized nearly $6 million worth of crack-cocaine destined for Philadelphia as well as thousands of fentanyl pills in a monthslong drug operation, authorities said Monday.

    The seizure was the culmination of an 18-month joint investigation into several men who supplied or sold the potent synthetic opioid and other deadly drugs in the city’s Kensington neighborhood and elsewhere, according to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who said the cocaine seizure happened last week.

    In all, Krasner said, law enforcement recovered 58 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of $5.8 million and fentanyl pills worth around $200,000.

    The bust is the latest eye-grabbing effort to stem the flow of fentanyl and other deadly drugs into the city, and specifically to Kensington, considered one of the nation’s largest open-air drug markets.

    The FBI targeted a sprawling criminal syndicate in the neighborhood last year when it arrested 33 members of the Weymouth Street gang, which was accused of running a 24/7 market for fentanyl and other drugs on the narrow block for nearly a decade.

    And in May that year, the Office of the Attorney General announced a joint operation that had seized more than $6 million in fentanyl cut with the veterinary sedative xylazine, effectively disbanding a North Philadelphia trafficking organization in the process.

    In the latest raid, investigators were tipped off to the criminal activity in December 2025 when members of the Delaware River Port Authority Police pulled over 46-year-old Raabitah Reynolds as he drove back to Philadelphia from New York City.

    After obtaining a search warrant for Reynolds’ vehicle, officers recovered a 9mm handgun and equipment for packaging drugs.

    Later, when they searched a South Philadelphia stash house tied to Reynolds, they recovered 2 kilograms of fentanyl that was ready to be packaged, a gallon jar of PCP, various pills, and more firearms, according to Assistant District Attorney Stephen Girman.

    Reynolds was charged with two counts of felony possession with the intent to deliver, two counts of criminal conspiracy, and related crimes. He is being held at the Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility with bail set at $500,000.

    The haul was “a significant drug seizure in and of itself,” Girman said, but investigators did not stop there.

    Reynolds’ arrest led them to one of his buyers, Khalil Dandy, a drug dealer who is accused of effectively controlling sales on a block at Kensington Avenue and E Street, according to Girman.

    Dandy, 36, ran that operation from his home at a Center City condominium located near 12th and Chestnut Streets, Girman said.

    Officers began visiting the Kensington block to conduct undercover buys, according to Girman, learning that Dandy was supplying fentanyl and crystal meth to street dealers in the neighborhood.

    Dandy was arrested on March 18 and charged with possession with the intent to manufacture or deliver and related crimes. He was released from custody on bail as he awaits a preliminary hearing.

    Meanwhile, investigators offered information about Reynolds to the DEA field office in New York, which led to the raid of a “pill mill” operating out of a Brooklyn apartment.

    There agents recovered more than 20 kilograms of fentanyl that had been pressed into blue pills to pass off the deadly drug as oxycodone, Girman said.

    These pills “are exceptionally dangerous, because people can take them thinking they are a regular prescription painkiller, and they can be filled with a fatal amount of fentanyl,” he said.

    And as investigators traced Reynolds’ network, they learned he was also involved in bulk cocaine sales that came from a supplier on the West Coast.

    Those shipments were shipped to Philadelphia in crates to be sold throughout the region, according to Girman.

    In early July, investigators intercepted two of those containers, and with the assistance of a K9 unit, recovered a total of 58 kilograms of cocaine from within.

    They arrested another Philadelphia man, 51-year-old Ephraim Ramsey, who had showed up to pick up the drugs.

    Ramsey was charged with one count of felony possession with the intent to deliver and one count of criminal conspiracy.

    And when Philadelphia police went to arrest Reynolds at an apartment in the city’s Kingsessing neighborhood, he led them on a chase through a second-story window and into a back alley before being apprehended.

    From a separate apartment on City Avenue, investigators recovered more than 2,000 of the blue fentanyl-laced pills as well as counterfeit Adderall, according to Girman.

    In a third residence in Olney — a house being prepped to stash the cocaine shipments — officers recovered an AR-15 rifle with an obliterated serial number.

    Krasner, touting the success of the operation, said he was pleased that law enforcement officers had targeted large shipments of contraband as opposed to targeting “young people with a small amount of drugs in their pocket.”

    “This, in my opinion, is a much more important and much more effective approach,” he said.

  • A union fight inside Philly DA Larry Krasner’s office may test his pro-labor reputation

    A union fight inside Philly DA Larry Krasner’s office may test his pro-labor reputation

    Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has long said he’s a friend to organized labor. As prosecutors in his office are gearing up for an election to authorize their union, Krasner has said their efforts could ensure his own legacy, because “whatever person might take my seat later cannot easily undo what we have done.”

    But not everyone in his office is feeling the support.

    More than 100 lower-level employees in the District Attorney’s Office, including paralegals and victim and witness coordinators, are separately trying to secure their own union — and some say they’re meeting resistance.

    Several workers said that Krasner’s administration has put up roadblocks and taken positions that they see as at odds with his public image as a leader of the city’s progressive movement.

    Five paralegals and coordinators, all of whom spoke to The Inquirer on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution before a union is in place, said the unionization process has left them disappointed with Krasner.

    “He was elected in large part because of a number of very important pro-labor organizations in Philadelphia,” said one employee. “If the DA just came out and publicly supported it, that’s what I would expect from the most progressive DA in America.”

    District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks during a press conference about a homicide in May.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    And meanwhile, the lower-level employees say there’s been a separate Wild West-style standoff between two unions, which are both vying to represent them.

    Krasner said in an interview on Monday that he supports his employees’ right to organize a union through a “properly conducted free, fair, and final election.”

    “I will support them 100% in whatever decision they make to form or not to form a union, and whatever union they choose if they do form one,” he said.

    Still, it all could become a political flashpoint for Krasner, a third-term progressive Democrat whose name has been floated by some in the city’s political class as a potential candidate for higher office. He has not ruled out running next year, when Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, a more centrist Democrat, will be up for reelection.

    No Philly mayor has lost reelection in modern history. So does Mayor Parker have anything to worry about?

    While Krasner has positioned himself as supportive of organized labor, his relationship with some leaders of the city’s politically powerful unions has been strained. He’s received steadfast support from the unions that tend to align with left-leaning politicians, but clashed with others, including the leaders of the building trades unions that last year backed his challenger.

    Krasner last month publicly criticized Parker for not acquiescing to his office’s requests for additional funding, to which Parker countered that his funding has increased every year since she became mayor. He said this week that he believes the unionization effort among his employees is the result of his office being underfunded during Parker’s administration.

    Paralegals and victim and witness coordinators said that they have explored unionization to improve wages. Several staffers described living paycheck-to-paycheck and holding second jobs to meet expenses.

    The starting annual salary for paralegals, who assist attorneys with legal research and drafting documents, and for coordinators, who shepherd victims and witnesses through the court process, is $46,000.

    Prosecutors in District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Office move to unionize

    Several employees also said they’re seeking union representation to improve their workplace culture. Two said the expectations of them change frequently, and that responsibilities often expand with little warning.

    But the road to get there, they said, has not been smooth.

    To unionize, the lower-level employees partnered last year with organizers at the United Steelworkers Local 286. The union represents workers in a diverse range of industries, including school bus drivers, pharmaceutical packaging plant workers, and some clerks in the city’s court system.

    Picketers employed in the District Attorney’s Office picket outside during the AFSCME District Council 33 strike on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. DC 33 already employs some workers in the DAO.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

    Carlo Simone Jr., the union’s president and business manager, said his local has been seen by some city employees in recent years as “an alternative” to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 and District Council 47.

    Those two much larger unions represent thousands of city employees, with DC 33 largely representing blue-collar workers and DC 47 working primarily with white-collar staff.

    The prosecutors in Krasner’s office will be represented by DC 47 if their election is successful. But several of the lower-level workers in the District Attorney’s Office had preexisting relationships with USW and said that they thought the steelworkers’ union would be the best fit to represent them.

    In December, USW filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, asking the state to authorize an election that would lead to them representing the paralegals.

    But DC 33 had other plans. In February, DC 33 filed paperwork with the state and argued that the paralegals instead belong in their municipal workers’ union, setting up a power struggle with the steelworkers.

    The PLRB agreed with DC 33.

    Last month, the board issued a preliminary ruling that said DC 33 is the appropriate union to organize the workers. The board reasoned that, under longstanding precedent, DC 33 is responsible for representing “nonprofessional” employees — or those that don’t require advanced professional education — who are designated as members of the civil service.

    The vast majority of city employees are members of the civil service, which is the city’s merit-oriented system for hiring and promotion. It is intended to separate municipal employment from political considerations.

    But for decades, most employees in the District Attorney’s Office have been exempt from the designation. Under the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, employees are civil service unless they are specifically exempted. Assistant district attorneys and some investigators in the DA’s office are exempt, but there is no carve-out for paralegals or victim and witness coordinators.

    The lower-level employees who spoke to The Inquirer said they want their jobs to be classified as civil service, because the designation would require job descriptions and afford them protections against arbitrary discipline.

    But Krasner’s office last month filed paperwork opposing the PLRB ruling, saying that lower-level workers in his office have not been designated as civil service for decades and that the labor board doesn’t have the authority to reclassify them.

    Krasner called the PLRB’s decision a “rogue finding that was illegal.”

    “This is a law enforcement agency. We have to follow the law,” he said. “If there’s going to be civil service, it will be because our workers’ rights are protected because they decide it’s beneficial to them and because legal processes are followed.”

    In this November file photo, District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks to reporters during a news conference outside the District Attorney’s Office after he won reelection.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    But employees said they saw Krasner’s opposition as a slight.

    “He is not pushing for us,“ one employee said, ”and in fact is making this process way longer than it should have been.”

    The PLRB has yet to issue a final ruling, and it’s unclear when one may come. A spokesperson declined to comment. DC 33 also declined to comment.

    If the PLRB’s ruling stands, paralegals and victim and witness coordinators would be represented by DC 33, and it’s not clear if they’d have the ability to pursue organizing with another union.

    Simone, of the steelworkers’ group, said that USW is encouraging employees in the DA’s office to “stay the course,” even if they ultimately join a different union.

    “It might not be as soon as they want it,” he said, “but they will be OK.”

  • Teen accused of South Philly shooting death of Penn State student was captured in Colorado, 2nd teen remains at large

    Teen accused of South Philly shooting death of Penn State student was captured in Colorado, 2nd teen remains at large

    A teen wanted in the shooting death of Penn State student William “Billy” Schmidt in South Philadelphia last month was apprehended in Colorado, the U.S. Marshals Service said Wednesday night.

    Azzubair Outen-Fleming, 16, was taken into custody in Colorado Springs at the home of a distant relative, the U.S. Marshals Service said. The teen was being housed at the Zebulon Pike Youth Center awaiting extradition to Philadelphia.

    Earlier on Wednesday, District Attorney Larry Krasner announced the arrest of Outen-Fleming’s stepfather for allegedly hindering the police investigation into the slaying of Schmidt.

    Donte Abdulmalik, 35, was charged with hindering apprehension, obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and related crimes, Krasner said Wednesday.

    Authorities continue to search for Kaiseem Smith, also 16, who allegedly participated in the robbery and shooting of Schmidt, 22, just steps from his family’s South Philadelphia home on June 6.

    Prosecutors said Abulmalik helped his stepson leave the city. He is not accused of participating in the homicide.

    The teens will face charges of murder, robbery, criminal conspiracy, illegal possession of a firearm, and related offenses, Krasner said.

    He suggested that the investigation could involve others, describing the charges against the two teenagers and Abdulmalik as “a smaller part of a bigger picture.”

    “I am not telling you that these are the only people involved,” Krasner said during a news conference Wednesday. “I’m not telling you that this investigation is over or that we have all the answers yet.”

    Philadelphia police have said Schmidt was walking home when two masked people approached him. During what investigators say was an attempted robbery, one of the suspects — whom Krasner identified as Smith — shot Schmidt.

    Surveillance camera footage shows that one suspect took Schmidt’s phone, prosecutors said Wednesday, then rifled through his pockets before knocking him to the ground.

    Additional footage later shows Schmidt walking behind the suspects, before one throws a phone down the block and the other fires a bullet into Schmidt’s chest.

    Krasner declined to say whether the gun used to kill Schmidt had been recovered.

    Investigators say surveillance cameras captured the suspects before and after the shooting. One was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with a hand-drawn “KONFUSED” logo and a skull-and-crossbones sketched in black marker on the front, according to the footage. After the shooting, police said, both suspects fled wearing white T-shirts.

    Philadelphia police and the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force are searching for the remaining teenager. Both agencies have offered rewards for information leading to the arrests of both teens. Krasner said Smith has ties to Philadelphia’s Point Breeze neighborhood and Delaware.

    Anyone with information may contact the U.S. Marshals Service at 1-866-865-8477 or submit a tip online through its website: usmarshals.gov. Tips can also be provided to Philadelphia police at 215-686-3334 or 215-686-8477.

  • Defense lawyers seek to block AG’s appeal of overturned murder convictions

    Defense lawyers seek to block AG’s appeal of overturned murder convictions

    Lawyers for three Philadelphia men whose murder convictions were overturned in May are asking a judge to block the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office from intervening in the case in an effort to reverse that outcome.

    Attorneys for Marc Brittingham, Jermal Shuler, and Rasheed Turner have asked Common Pleas Court Judge Jennifer Schultz to reject state prosecutors’ effort to appeal the decision that allowed the men to go free. The lawyers said the office did not have the right to intervene at this late stage.

    On June 16 — three weeks after the men’s convictions were vacated — the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a landmark decision expanding the state’s role in Philadelphia’s post-conviction cases. But that ruling, the lawyers said, doesn’t apply retroactively.

    At issue is whether the authority of the attorney general’s office extends to cases still within a window for appeal when the court issued its sweeping decision granting state prosecutors new power to step into post-conviction cases in Philadelphia.

    The answer could determine how broadly the attorney general’s office can exercise its new authority.

    Last week, the office sought to intervene in the case of Brittingham, Shuler and Turner, whose convictions in the 1997 killing of Essie Mae Thomas were vacated after Philadelphia prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the judge agreed that newly uncovered evidence had undermined their confidence in the jury’s verdict.

    The attorney general’s office filed notices seeking to intervene and appeal 29 days after Schultz vacated the convictions, prosecutors withdrew the charges, and the men were released from prison after more than 28 years.

    The move marked the office’s first effort to invoke the high court’s ruling, a sharply worded decision in which it accused Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office of repeatedly misleading courts while seeking to overturn convictions. The court ordered that, going forward, trial judges must notify the attorney general’s office whenever Philadelphia prosecutors concede post-conviction relief and give it an opportunity to review the case and potentially intervene.

    The filings also underscore a complication the Supreme Court anticipated. The deputy attorney general assigned to the case, Hugh Burns, previously worked in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where he opposed earlier appeals by Brittingham, Shuler, and Turner to seek DNA testing in an effort to have their convictions reversed.

    Justice Christine Donohue warned that the new intervention process could create conflicts when former Philadelphia prosecutors now employed by the attorney general’s office are asked to defend convictions they previously handled.

    Defense attorneys say Burns’ involvement highlights that concern. They also described the attorney general’s effort as part of “an ongoing political and ideological battle” between state prosecutors and the district attorney’s office, arguing that Brittingham, Shuler, and Turner “should not be caught in the crossfire.”

    The lawyers say the Supreme Court’s order forecloses the attorney general’s attempt to intervene. In its decision, the high court wrote that state prosecutors have “the right to intervene” in any case where the district attorney’s office concedes relief “before [a] ruling on the concession” is made.

    The attorney general’s office, they said in the filings, is attempting to “change the rules after the fact.”

    Attorney General Dave Sunday did not respond to questions about the case.

    In a statement Tuesday, he said, “I don’t think that it benefits anyone for criminal justice leaders to editorialize a lot of the work we do. We intend to litigate in the appropriate venue — the courts.“

    He added: “The last thing individuals who live in the community want to hear are elected officials yelling at each other. They want to see outcomes.”

    In an earlier interview with The Inquirer, Sunday said that after the high court ruling, his office would be reviewing “cases that are still going through the appellate process.”

    In this case, the district attorney’s office sided with the defense, saying in its own filing that the high court’s decision created a right to intervene “before [a] ruling,” not after. While prosecutors said they would comply with the court’s directive in future cases, they argued that nothing in the decision authorizes intervention in this case.

    In a statement filed in the men’s case, Burns acknowledged that the state Supreme Court had not yet issued its ruling when Schultz granted the men their freedom. Even so, he asked whether the court should temporarily vacate its order to allow the attorney general to intervene.

    Burns’ filing does not challenge the evidence that prompted prosecutors to support overturning the convictions.

    That evidence centered on newly disclosed information about the disciplinary history of Bennett Preston, a former assistant medical examiner whose testimony at trial helped establish Thomas’ time of death — testimony prosecutors later concluded was unreliable.

    Two forensic pathologists hired by defense attorneys and prosecutors also concluded that Preston had incorrectly estimated when Thomas died. Schultz found that the new information likely would have changed the outcome of the trial had jurors heard it before issuing their verdict.

  • Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday talks Supreme Court’s Krasner ruling, abortion appeal

    Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday talks Supreme Court’s Krasner ruling, abortion appeal

    Attorney General Dave Sunday has spent 18 months as the state’s chief law enforcement officer, overseeing a sprawling office that handles criminal prosecution, civil litigation, consumer protection services, civil rights enforcement, and more.

    In that time, the 51-year-old Republican and Harrisburg native says, he has taken on issues ranging from the opioid crisis to illegal crime guns. And last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed his office broad authority to review the efforts of Philadelphia prosecutors to overturn murder convictions they have called unjust, a signature initiative of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office.

    In a recent interview at his Philadelphia office, Sunday talked about that and more.

    What is your reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on the work of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit?

    Obviously, it’s an unprecedented ruling.

    Oftentimes, the best outcome is through the adversarial process. We work with the Philly DA’s office in a lot of different areas, and I viewed this ruling as any other that provides me with instructions on a way on which I have to run my office.

    Moving forward, the ruling requires your office to review any post-conviction concession that Krasner’s office aims to pursue. How will that work?

    There are questions. How many times will we have to intervene? What will that do to staffing? Will we have the logistics and resources to do it appropriately? I think that process will unfold over the next month or so.

    There’s no other real comparison for this ruling, and so what I can say very simply is this: It is absolutely crucial that there is a voice for the families of victims, and at the same time, I think it’s crucial to make sure that we protect the rights of individuals who are charged with crimes and convicted of crimes.

    That balance is found in applying the law and the facts to the issue. That’s something we will enthusiastically do.

    .Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
    Since Krasner first took office, his prosecutors have supported efforts to overturn around 115 convictions. Given the Supreme Court’s findings, do you now question whether some of those overturned convictions should be reconsidered?

    Well, we have to look at the legal process there. For individuals who the court has already ruled in a manner in which they’re out of prison, those cases are done.

    But with cases that are still going through the appellate process, individuals that are incarcerated, those are situations where we’re going to have to take a look at it. I mean, this is very serious, and when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in this manner — not just the ruling itself, but the verbiage — I, as attorney general, take that extremely seriously.

    We will do our job, and we’ll do our duty, and we’ll review it, but it’s also important to understand that this isn’t a quest to prove someone wrong. It’s a quest to ensure that all parties are zealously advocated for.

    Krasner has strongly opposed the ruling. He’s likened this issue to the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement and said that the decision undermines the votes of those who elected him to office. What is your response to that?

    I don’t think that it benefits anyone for criminal justice leaders to editorialize a lot of the work we do.

    It’s critical that the citizenry knows and understands that their case will be dealt with by applying the facts to the law — and I know that’s not the most exciting answer, but there are things that are in my control and there are things that aren’t in my control, and his reaction to anything is completely out of my control.

    The last thing individuals who live in the community want to hear are elected officials yelling at each other. They want to see outcomes.

    Earlier this year, justices ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for those convicted of second-degree murder are unconstitutional. What are your thoughts on that?

    Third-degree murder, second-degree murder, those are cases where the acts resulting in the crime are vastly different case to case. As a prosecutor, I’ve tried horrific second-degree murder cases — one was an in-home burglary where an individual was left face down on the ground, duct-taped, and they ultimately died from positional asphyxiation, which really is torture.

    At the same time, there are second-degree murder cases where you have multiple codefendants, and — this case is highlighted a lot — one of the codefendants pulls a gun out, kills an individual, and all those codefendants, because they were acting in concert and furthering some conspiracy, they’re all guilty of second-degree murder and they’re in for life.

    So there are second-degree murder cases where the individuals should have an opportunity for parole, and at the same time, there are cases that are absolutely horrific, where individuals should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

    The important place we’re in now is the legislative process, moving forward to ensure that the punishment is commensurate with the harm caused in the crime.

    Violent crime has fallen dramatically from its pandemic-era highs in Philadelphia and across the state. Should the attorney general’s office get some credit for that?

    There is no one individual or agency that can take credit for these outcomes. We’re with our federal partners, we work with everybody.

    After I was elected, some of the very first calls I made were to the Philadelphia mayor and the police commissioner, and I made it very clear that we’re partners. I’m excited, let’s go. And that’s what we’ve done.

    The Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force is a huge part. We do everything we can every day to go after gun traffickers, illegal straw purchasers. We’ve removed more than 500 crime guns off the streets [statewide] in 2025.

    In addition to that, our Bureau of Narcotics works every day in Philadelphia. Last year, we removed 56 million doses of fentanyl from the streets, and a large portion of that was in the city.

    The Commonwealth Court struck down a decades-old law that banned Pennsylvanians from using their Medicaid benefits to pay for abortions, and last month, your office appealed. Why?

    A lot of people don’t understand the role of the AG in a lot of issues. In Pennsylvania, we have the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, the rules that dictate the job, and one of the rules in there is that the attorney general shall defend the constitutionality of statutes in Pennsylvania.

    I have irritated the entire political spectrum, because I am defending statutes whether you like them or not. That’s literally my job. What a lot of people don’t understand is that the [Medicaid] law is part of the Abortion Control Act — the same law that allows abortions to occur up to six months of pregnancy, the very same law.

    In that law is a subsection that also says that government funds cannot be used for abortions — so I’m defending the abortion law in Pennsylvania, just like I would any other section of that law.

    Critics say that by appealing the ruling and prolonging this issue, you are denying Pennsylvanians of what the court called a “fundamental right to reproductive autonomy.” How do you respond?

    Just like every law we defend — every single one — there are people that like it and don’t like it, and they will have commentary. I certainly respect their absolute right to have that commentary.

    What I will say is, this decision has nothing to do with that. It is the job of the attorney general to defend the statute.

    .Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
    What would you say has set your tenure apart from your predecessor, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and his appointed successor, Michelle Henry?

    Very simply, I came into this job as a prosecutor. I ran on public safety. I wasn’t a legislator, so when I look at the office, I view it as a place where you follow the facts in the law, and you fight hard to keep people safe.

    With that being said, I have hyper-focused on issues impacting citizens. We have huge crises in Pennsylvania that need to be addressed, specifically the mental health crisis.

    When I came into office, I saw our prisons are full of people that have mental and behavioral health challenges. Individuals go to jail solely because they have a mental health crisis, and what I want to see are people getting treatment.

    What we did was create a new initiative that gives police a toolbox, so when they come into contact with someone in a mental health crisis [who is committing a low-level criminal offense], they can get that person into treatment [if the person chooses to do so]. At the same time, that person can be charged, and the police have the flexibility to hold that charge.

    This is brand-new, and we have nine counties that are already signed up and are rolling. We have five more lined up and ready to roll over the next few months.

    President Donald Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and he was joined by some of the state’s other top Republican officials, such as Stacy Garrity. Is that an event you would have liked to attend?

    In all candor, I have events that have been scheduled for months and months, and the reality is, a lot of these [presidential] events pop up pretty quickly.

    On Tuesday, I had an event with the first elected attorney general in Pennsylvania, LeRoy Zimmerman. I was with him at a fireside chat, talking about what the AG’s office has looked like, and how it’s changed over the last 30 years.

  • A West Philly man was sentenced to up to 40 months in prison for seeking to make bombs in support of a terror group

    A West Philly man was sentenced to up to 40 months in prison for seeking to make bombs in support of a terror group

    A West Philadelphia man who was convicted last year of seeking to build bombs in support of Islamic extremist groups was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 40 months in prison and six years of probation.

    Muhyyee-Ud-din Abdul-Rahman, 20, was found guilty in September of charges including attempting to possess weapons of mass destruction after jurors concluded he had experimented three years ago in and around his Wynnefield home with dangerous chemicals often found in high-volume explosives.

    Authorities said that Abdul-Rahman had done so after he communicated with Syrian extremists on Instagram, and that their arrest of Abdul-Rahman in 2023 had prevented him from unleashing a terror attack on the region.

    Jurors, however, found Abdul-Rahman not guilty of the more serious charge of possessing weapons of mass destruction, suggesting they believed he intended to build a bomb but had never succeeded. Common Pleas Court Judge Michele Hangley also threw out a conspiracy charge after ruling that prosecutors had not proved Abdul-Rahman had been working with anyone else.

    Abdul-Rahman told Hangley after being convicted that he had matured during his time in custody, much of it spent in a juvenile facility because he was arrested as a teen. And he said he had come to reject the radical beliefs promoted by the group he was following, Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad, or KTJ.

    Still, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday that he was “deeply concerned” by what he cast as an insufficient penalty for a would-be terrorist. Krasner said his office had asked that Abdul-Rahman serve at least 10 years behind bars because prosecutors believe he remains “an extreme danger” to the city.

    “We ought to be able to live in a city where a terrorist is kept off the streets for a reasonable amount of time,” Krasner said.

    Federal investigators looking into KTJ’s activities in the United States in 2023 found that Abdul-Rahman was the only person in the country exchanging messages with some of its key online propagandists. Further investigation later revealed that Abdul-Rahman, around that time, had also applied for his first passport, tried to reach out to a Syrian border-crossing office, and purchased or possessed wires and chemicals common in homemade bombs.

    When authorities went on to conduct surveillance of Abdul-Rahman, officials said at trial, officers tailing him at a Lowe’s store saw him buy muriatic acid, a key component in a violent explosive dubbed TATP, also known as “the mother of Satan.” And a review of his internet search history around that time showed he had been looking up Philadelphia parade routes, trash can bombs, and nuclear power plants — something authorities said was consistent with “target and tactic” research.

    When federal agents questioned Abdul-Rahman inside a police station, an official testified, he admitted conducting bomb tests near his house and said he wanted to become a “bomb guy” for KTJ in Syria.

    Authorities arrested Abdul-Rahman in August 2023, just as he was to begin his senior year in high school. At the time, he was a promising wrestler with a college scholarship offer, and his father, Qawi Abdul-Rahman, is a well-known criminal defense lawyer who has mounted unsuccessful campaigns to become a city judge.

    Abdul-Rahman’s attorneys said at trial that he had made mistakes, but that he was an impressionable teen who had fallen down a “rabbit hole” of online propaganda. They also said he had never succeeded in building a bomb and did not take serious, in-person steps to advance the radical views he expressed online or in his house.

    At a hearing last month, one of his attorneys, Donald Chisholm, urged Hangley to consider that Abdul-Rahman’s path to the crime began when he was 16 years old.

    “Even at the age he is now,” Chisholm said, “he’s not fully matured.”

    Chisholm, said Thursday that he thought the sentence was fair, and that Krasner’s continued insistence on casting his client as dangerous was “disingenuous” and did not account for factors such as his client’s age at the time of arrest, or his growth over the last several years.

    The case attracted attention in part because it was a rare example of the district attorney’s office seeking to convict someone it described as a would-be international terrorist. Although federal counterterrorism agents were heavily involved in the investigation, juveniles are rarely prosecuted in federal courts.

    Krasner said Thursday that Abdul-Rahman likely would have faced a significantly harsher penalty if he had been convicted of similar conduct in the federal system, and he criticized the state’s sentencing guidelines, which prosecutors said Hangley cited when imposing her penalty.

    Abdul-Rahman has already served about 34 months in custody, meaning he will face a maximum of another six months in prison under the penalty Hangley imposed.

    Krasner said his office was weighing whether to appeal the sentence.

    Staff writer Jillian Kramer contributed to this article.

  • The Pa. Attorney General’s Office seeks to intervene in a murder case that Philly prosecutors helped overturn last month

    The Pa. Attorney General’s Office seeks to intervene in a murder case that Philly prosecutors helped overturn last month

    The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday said it was appealing and seeking to intervene in a murder case that Philadelphia prosecutors helped overturn last month — the first application of a recent state Supreme Court ruling that gave state prosecutors more oversight over their city counterparts in appellate matters.

    The notice, filed Wednesday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, seeks to insert the attorney general’s office into the case of Marc Brittingham, Rasheed Turner, and Jermal Shuler, whose convictions in a 1997 killing were vacated in May after prosecutors and defense attorneys said key evidence presented at their trial was unreliable.

    As a result, Brittingham, Turner, and Shuler were freed from prison after 28 years.

    But last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in a forceful ruling that District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office had displayed a pattern of misleading judges while seeking to overturn murder convictions. Moving forward, the justices said, the state attorney general’s office should be given the opportunity to review such cases before a judge can decide whether to grant relief.

    Forceful Pa. Supreme Court ruling constrains one of DA Larry Krasner’s signature initiatives

    The filings raise a procedural question at the heart of the new ruling. The Supreme Court’s decision requires judges to notify the attorney general and gives the office “the right to intervene in the case before ruling on the concession.” But in this case, that moment had already come and gone; the judge had accepted the district attorney’s position and overturned the convictions.

    What may have allowed the attorney general back in was timing: The 30-day window to appeal the decision had not closed yet. The office filed its notice of intervention and an appeal on day 29.

    Krasner, in a brief phone call Wednesday, said, “I hope the public will watch this case carefully.”

    “I hope they will watch what our attorney general’s office stands for and what the district attorney’s office stands for,” he said. “Stay tuned. It’s going to tell us a lot about what’s really going on.”

    Deputy Attorney General Hugh Burns did not say in court documents how or why the office believed it had authority to intervene in this case, saying only that it was taking the action in response to the state Supreme Court’s order from last week.

    A spokesperson for the office declined to comment.

    Wednesday’s filing seeks to reopen a case in which many of the facts underlying the district attorney’s decision to join defense lawyers in seeking to vacate the convictions remain obscured by extensive redactions in court filings.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys said the case was undermined by newly uncovered information about the work of Bennett Preston, a former assistant medical examiner whose testimony helped establish the prosecution’s timeline of Essie Mae Thomas’ death.

    Thomas, 73, was found stabbed to death inside her Northwest Philadelphia home in November 1997. A jury convicted Brittingham, Turner, and Shuler the following year, after hearing testimony from a neighbor who placed them at the home and from Preston, who linked Thomas’ time of death to the witness’ account. Nearly three decades later, Krasner’s prosecutors said that the testimony of the witness and Preston was questionable, and that disciplinary action had been taken against Preston.

    The details of those disciplinary actions, however, were redacted from filings.

    Officials with the district attorney’s office have said that the discovery of previously unknown disciplinary action involving Preston helped prompt the reinvestigation. But prosecutors have declined to publicly detail much of that information, and court records filed in the case concealed significant portions of the evidence that led them to conclude the convictions could no longer stand.

    When Common Pleas Court Judge Jennifer Schultz vacated the convictions in May, she found that the newly uncovered evidence would likely have changed the outcome of the trial. Prosecutors then withdrew the charges, ending the case and allowing the men to walk free.

    Jules Epstein, a criminal law professor at Temple University, said “this is unknown territory.” Because a court order is not final for 30 days, he said, the office could have a right to appeal.

    He pointed to comments from the attorney general’s office this week in which it said it was still working out a process for how and when to intervene in cases.

    “What disturbs me is did they actually look at the merits of this decision? Or did they just knee jerk and say, ‘It’s Krasner, we’re going to challenge it’?”

    Marissa Boyers Bluestine, assistant director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania‘s law school, said the language of the high court’s order did not appear to leave room for retroactivity.

    Bluestine, who worked on Brittingham, Turner, and Shuler’s case in her previous role leading the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, said it was also curious that the attorney general’s office was involving itself without the judge’s invitation.

    “They’re saying that they are intervening, not requesting permission to intervene, which is an interesting way to put it,” she said.