In a repu­di­a­tion of the city’s past his­to­ry as one of the nation’s lead­ing pro­duc­ers of death sen­tences, Philadelphia has joined the trend of major nation­al juris­dic­tions to select reform can­di­dates who have pledged to lim­it or elim­i­nate use of the death penal­ty. On May 16, pri­ma­ry vot­ers in the over­whelm­ing­ly Democratic city select­ed long-time civ­il rights lawyer Lawrence Krasner (pic­tured) as the Democratic nom­i­nee for District Attorney. Krasner, a defense attor­ney who entered the pub­lic’s eye rep­re­sent­ing pro­test­ers from Occupy Philadelphia and Black Lives Matter, ran on a plat­form of sweep­ing crim­i­nal jus­tice reform, includ­ing a vow nev­er to seek the death penal­ty. His cam­paign web­site states, ​“He knows that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is expen­sive, inef­fec­tive, and racial­ly biased. Since its rein­state­ment by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, it has cost Pennsylvania tax­pay­ers over $1 bil­lion, yet no one on Pennsylvania’s death row has been put to death invol­un­tar­i­ly since 1962. Meanwhile six peo­ple on death row have been exon­er­at­ed.” Because Democrats hold a 7 – 1 reg­is­tra­tion edge over Republicans, Krasner is con­sid­ered a pro­hib­i­tive favorite to defeat Republican nom­i­nee Beth Grossman, a for­mer assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney, in November’s gen­er­al elec­tion. Philadelphia is among the 2% of U.S. coun­ties respon­si­ble for 56% of the nation’s death row pop­u­la­tion, and its for­mer long­time District Attorney Lynne Abraham was named one of ​“America’s Five Deadliest Prosecutors” for over­see­ing the impo­si­tion of 108 death sen­tences. Krasner’s nom­i­na­tion con­tin­ues a trend among vot­ers in major cities replac­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al regimes per­ceived as over­ag­gres­sive­ly pur­su­ing the death penal­ty. In November 2015 runoff elec­tion, vot­ers in Caddo Parish (Shreveport), Louisiana elect­ed their first African American District Attorney, James Stewart, after act­ing District Attorney Dale Cox said the state should use ​“kill more peo­ple” with the death penal­ty. Last August, in a land­slide elec­tion described as reshap­ing the polit­i­cal land­scape of Northeast Florida, Republican pri­ma­ry vot­ers in Duval County (Jacksonville) replaced con­tro­ver­sial State Attorney Angela Corey with reform can­di­date Melissa Nelson. Then, in the November gen­er­al elec­tion, vot­ers in three more coun­ties known for their out­lier prac­tices on the death penal­ty—Harris County (Houston), Texas, Hillsborough County (Tampa), Florida; and Jefferson County (Birmingham), Alabama—replaced incum­bents with chal­lengers run­ning on reform plat­forms. Among Krasner’s oth­er reform pro­pos­als are review­ing past con­vic­tions for accu­ra­cy and ensur­ing that poten­tial­ly excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence is nev­er with­held from defen­dants, tak­ing a stronger stance against police mis­con­duct, and ending stop-and-frisk.

(A. Orso, ​“Reformer Larry Krasner wins Philly DA pri­ma­ry: What it means,” BillyPenn, May 16, 2017; W. Bunch, ​“This was­n’t just a pri­ma­ry vic­to­ry. This was a rev­o­lu­tion,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 17, 2017; ​“On the Issues,” Krasner for District Attorney.) See The 2% Death Penalty.

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