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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ended Larry Krasner's prosecutorial activism.
Philadelphia’s recalcitrant District Attorney Larry Krasner is back in the news this week, thanks to an extraordinary ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Invoking what’s known as “King’s bench jurisdiction” — which allows the state’s high court to assume jurisdiction over a case at any stage when it involves a matter of extraordinary public importance—the justices reversed a lower court decision to grant a new trial to a convicted murderer under the state’s Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA). The high court held that the record did not support a new trial, despiteKrasner’s office conceding in the courtroom that the defendant was entitled to such relief.
Courts generally defer to such concessions by a prosecutor’s office, so it is striking that Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court would disregard that concession and overturn the granting of a new trial. But the decision makes perfect sense.
For starters, Krasner’s office has a curious habit of conceding relief, according to the court. This matters because when the prosecution concedes relief, the reviewing court loses out on the benefits that stem from zealous advocacy in an adversarial process.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Daily Wire
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Rafael Mangual is the Nick Ohnell Fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He is also the author of Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts Most.