As Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner challenges a drive to remove him from office, he’s saying his detractors have his record all wrong.
In a statement attacking what Krasner called the “GOP’s Big Impeachment Lies,” he said his conviction rates for “trial-ready” gun homicides and nonfatal shootings were strong: 83% for fatal shootings and 79% for nonfatal.
Note the caveat “trial-ready.” Krasner’s analysis measured only those cases that survived a preliminary hearing in Philadelphia’s lower Municipal Court and advanced for a trial in Common Pleas Court. Once the many cases dismissed earlier by judges or withdrawn by prosecutors are taken into account, Krasner’s gun-murder conviction rate falls to 74% this year and 50% for nonfatal shootings.
And when all outcomes are counted, Krasner’s overall conviction rate this year for violent crime is just 33%. …
The House committee, in its report, also zeroed in on gun-possession cases. The documents it made public included a study from the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, an interagency facility funded by the federal government and the city to bring together law enforcement officials. The committee also cited a June study of gun cases by the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing. The studies, as well as an Inquirer analysis last year, all found that conviction rates declining since Krasner took office.
The Intelligence Center report was critical of the trend.
“This implies that, even when criminals are caught with a gun, they are swiftly finding out they may not receive as significant a consequence as they had historically,” the study said. “Notably, the likelihood of being arrested is low to begin with. This means that criminals know that their likelihood of getting caught with a gun is slim and, even if they get caught, they feel that they can leave without severe (or any) consequences.”
— Craig R. McCoy in In the move to remove DA Larry Krasner from office, a fight over gun violence and convictions
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