Sunday, November 4, 2018

Newsweek: D.A. Broke The Law On Plea Bargains In Murder Cases

You have to dig deep into Newsweek's profile of Philly D.A. Larry Krasner to find it, but reporter Steve Volk documents how Krasner  trampled on the rights of the families of murder victims in three homicide cases.

Volk talks to the families of three murder victims who weren't notified, as required by state law, when Krasner struck plea bargains with the killers of their loved ones, resulting in lesser charges and reduced sentences. In the story, Krasner, continuing to prove, as one prosecutor memorably put it, that he "doesn't give a fuck about victims," dismisses those violations as "growing pains." But Volk repeatedly asks the D.A., "Whose side are you on?"

The story can be read here.

8 comments

  1. So what recourse do we ordinary citizens have, except for waiting until 2021's elections?

    ReplyDelete
  2. "...when you lay down with a bitch you may end up infected."

    PhillyMag the rag that you have ceremoniously been published in, will have a major event, THINKFEST,..." where great minds and activists..." share opinions on issues that you and Steve Volk have explored forever.

    To share a platform with such 'luminaries' as Meek Mill, Pa. AG Shapiro, DA Krasner et al when discussion as germane as prosecutorial misconduct and manipulation of the truth by the Press and the Judicial System, highlight the argument of why it is critical to challenge FAKE NEWS,

    Are you embarrassed by the snub or is a glaring example of how there is a void and corruption by MSM.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That jackass didnt pay his taxes either

    ReplyDelete
  4. What recourse do we have when prosecutors are in charge? None. I am sorry for the three families that were not notified as the articles states, as they should have been notified by law, but I will never vote for a prosecutor as for DA, hopefully defense attorneys will line up around the block to take his spot, if he decides not to run again. That's what this average citizen is going to do.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Below is an Innocence Project Breaking News article, this is whay I would never vote for a proseuctor for a DA. When do they get it, when does it stop being about them and not about justice.


    innocenceprojectBREAKING NEWS: After more than 14 years behind bars—including 10 years on Florida’s death row—Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin was just exonerated of all charges in the 2004 murders of his former neighbors.
    __

    Aguirre, who is now 38 years old, maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest at age 24 in June 2004. He was originally convicted of the murders and sentenced to death in 2006.
    __
    In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously overturned Aguirre’s conviction and death sentence based on new evidence of innocence that his original jury never heard. The new evidence included DNA testing of multiple pieces of crime scene evidence that exculpated Aguirre and implicated another suspect—the victims’ daughter and granddaughter, Samantha Williams. The state Supreme Court also learned of evidence that, in the years after Aguirre’s trial, Samantha Williams confessed that she committed the murders to numerous friends and acquaintances who had no connection to Aguirre.
    __
    Despite the new evidence, however, State Attorney Phil Archer had announced that the state would not only retry Aguirre, but also seek the death penalty a second time. Today’s decision by prosecutors not to proceed came after additional evidence undermining Williams’ alibi and further implicating her emerged in recent pretrial proceedings.
    __
    “Mr. Aguirre was nearly executed for a crime he didn’t commit,” said Joshua Dubin, one of Aguirre’s lead trial attorneys. “While we are overjoyed that his ordeal is finally over, the case of Clemente Aguirre should serve as a chilling cautionary tale about how dangerous it is when there is a rush to judgment in a capital case. Mr. Aguirre pleaded for the blood to be tested and thankfully his post-conviction attorneys got that done. So when the results of those tests revealed that Samantha Williams’ blood was found within inches of the victim’s blood, and that she repeatedly confessed that she committed the crime to multiple witnesses, it boggles the mind that Mr. Aguirre even faced the prospect of being sent back to death row a second time."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Antoher recent posting from the Innocence Project, Philadelphia already had one the deadliest DA's in America, hopefully we never will never experience that type of proseuctor again. We cant be blind to these occurances or let them happen again. Lets jail proseuctors who knowingly put innocents in jail.


    innocenceprojectHappy freedom day to brothers Jonathan Barr and James Harden from Illinois!
    __
    Harden, Barr, Robert Taylor, Shainne Sharp, and Robert Veal were wrongly convicted of murdering a teenage girl in 1991. They were also teenagers at the time of the crime and falsely confessed to the murder after 21 hours of police interrogation. They were convicted in 1997 and sentenced to over 85 years in prison. In June 1994, before any of the teenagers were tried, the Illinois State Police crime lab identified a lone male DNA profile from sperm recovered from the victim’s body. Even though all five defendants were excluded as the source of the semen, the prosecution pushed forward rather than seeking the source of the semen recovered from the victim’s body.
    __
    Harden spent 16 years in prison and Barr spent 14 years in prison.
    __
    Barr was represented by the Innocence Project, Harden was represented by the University of Chicago Law School Exoneration Project.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This blog has documented prosecutorial overreach in many cases. We've said over and over again that prosecutors have too much power, and the media fails to hold them accountable. But there ought to be some compromise between holding prosecutors accountable and emptying the jails, as Progressive Larry Krasner is in the progress of doing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well considering there are many innocents inhabiting our jails, maybe we need to find common ground and release those who do not belong there.


    ReplyDelete

Thoughtful commentary welcome. Trolling, harassing, and defaming not welcome. Consistent with 47 U.S.C. 230, we have the right to delete without warning any comments we believe are obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.