The Pennsylvania Supreme Court delivered a stinging public rebuke to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office on Tuesday, ruling that prosecutors misled judges in their push to overturn an old murder conviction and reinstating a lower court’s original guilty verdict. On top of that, the justices added an extra layer of oversight that forces local judges to alert the state attorney general whenever Krasner’s team moves to undo a conviction, giving that office a formal chance to weigh in. The decision lands squarely on the DA’s post-conviction work and could reshape how Philadelphia handles long-closed homicide cases.
What the Court Said
Writing for the majority, Justice Kevin Dougherty said Philadelphia prosecutors “violated its duty of candor” and faulted them for holding back a key memorandum that showed a central witness had implicated the defendant, according to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The opinion said the DA’s office submitted a joint stipulation that was wrong in several ways and did not bother to interview witnesses or investigators before asking a judge to throw out the 2004 conviction.
The Case at the Center
The ruling focuses on Lavar Brown, convicted in 2003 of second-degree murder in the robbery and killing of a Rite Aid worker in North Philadelphia, and later convicted in 2005 of a separate homicide. Krasner’s office told courts in 2021 that Brown should get a new trial, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Families of the victims asked the state’s highest court to step in, and the attorney general’s amicus brief told the justices that, since 2018, Krasner’s office had agreed to post-conviction relief in roughly 115 cases without any adversarial testing in court.
How Courts Must Act Now
To clamp down on what it described as a troubling pattern, the Supreme Court ordered that judges handling appeals must notify the state attorney general and allow that office to review any case in which Krasner’s prosecutors intend to concede relief. The opinion said this procedural shift is needed to “promote just outcomes,” the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania wrote. The move effectively installs the statewide prosecutor as a built-in reviewer, and possibly an adversary, in Philadelphia post-conviction cases.
Reactions
Krasner pushed back in a video statement, arguing that the ruling “undermines the value of a vote in Philadelphia” and casting the decision as part of broader resistance to criminal-justice reform, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Pennsylvania Attorney General David Sunday, for his part, said his office was “grateful to serve as a check on the process.” Lawyers representing the victims’ families praised the decision, saying it validated their concerns that the DA’s office had not fully developed or disclosed the factual record before seeking relief.
Legal Implications
The opinion signals that Pennsylvania’s high court is prepared to aggressively police prosecutorial honesty in post-conviction work and that future concessions by prosecutors will not glide through without scrutiny. In practical terms, the new requirement to involve the attorney general is likely to slow down and complicate agreed-upon relief motions, forcing the Conviction Integrity Unit and defense lawyers to adjust how they approach older cases.
What’s Next
For now, Brown’s conviction stands, and the lower-court order granting him a new trial has been reversed. Going forward, judges and attorneys will have to work within the court’s new oversight rules whenever the DA’s office seeks to revisit past convictions. Philadelphia’s legal community will be watching closely to see how often the attorney general steps in and how that power reshapes efforts to reexamine old cases while balancing the interests of victims’ families.
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