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.

The decision amounted to one of the most scathing rebukes yet of Krasner's efforts to revisit decades-old convictions.

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 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."