1. There’s a common incredibly lazy critique of Larry Krasner among those infected with the “tough on crime” fever that basically boils down to “Krasner is a reformer therefore he is responsible for an increase in shootings in Philly.” It’s just so obviously false.
2. Setting aside the fact that shootings have been on the rise in other cities – which should complicate that narrative – let’s take a look at shootings in Philly. The data is quite striking.
3. Here are fatal shootings. Krasner became DA in January 2018. Note that he has prosecuted more than 99% of the fatal shootings that have ended in an arrest. BUT ALSO NOTE, PHILLY POLICE MAKE AN ARREST IN FEWER THAN 40% OF FATAL SHOOTINGS. Image
4. The same is true of non-fatal shootings. Krasner has prosecuted more than 98% of the non-fatal shootings that have ended in an arrest. But also note, PHILLY POLICE MAKE AN ARREST IN ~20% OF NON-FATAL SHOOTINGS. Image
5. It is just absurd and so incredibly lazy to say “aha the reformer Krasner’s decision to give people several decades in prison as opposed to life” is the cause of shootings as opposed to “the Philly police RARELY SOLVE SHOOTINGS.”
6. Krasner is imposing *extremely harsh* penalties on those arrested for shootings. But the problem is Philly police are TERRIBLE at their most basic function. They rarely bother to solve shootings, even homicides.
7. The TYPICAL HOMICIDE and TYPICAL SHOOTING in Philly ends in **NOT EVEN A SINGLE DAY OF INCARCERATION.** Not one day. But that is caused by the fact that the Philly Police – many of whom talk like “tough on crime” macho guys – are terrible at their most basic function.
8. Maybe everyone should stop blaming shootings on the reformer and instead start blaming the police who – despite their tough talk – are responsible for the fact that the median length of incarceration for shootings in Philly is zero days.

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More from @davidminpdx

1 Apr
1. Yesterday I watched a pretty remarkable hearing in New Orleans where thirteen men convicted by nonunanimous juries, some decades ago, were resentenced, mostly to time served. If I were a criminal law professor, I would assign it to students. nola.com/news/courts/ar…
2. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in a courtroom. In most courtrooms, one rarely sees people, defendants or otherwise, take responsibility for the harm that they caused. Our system rarely incentivizes that. But this was different.
3. All of the men were convicted by nonunanimous juries – juries that the Supreme Court has said were “racist” and violate the 6th Amendment. But that didn’t mean they were legally entitled to be retried. Law in this area is complex and “finality” is often preferred over justice.
Read 11 tweets
28 Mar
1. This article – like so much of Matt’s writing – includes an abject falsehood, A TOTAL LIE, based on his stick- figure understanding of American criminal justice policy.
2. The piece falsely says, “Indeed, one of the big ideas touted by progressive prosecutors such as Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner is to stop prosecuting gun possession cases altogether.” Completely false. Easily and verifiably false.
3. It’s true that Larry Krasner has expanded a preexisting policy that allows for the diversion to a probation-like supervision program of some first-time offenders who purchased their guns legally.
Read 7 tweets
6 Mar
Do I understand this correctly? A pro-police PAC leaked a police report falsely stating our only Black city councilwoman engaged in a hit-&-run. @Oregonian ran an article propagating the lie, then “corrected” the article in a way that erased the fact they propagated the lie?
Trying to think “what’s the most innocent possible version of this whole mess,” @maxoregonian @oregonian? I guess its (1) all black women look alike and (2) journalism is little more than retyping police reports (3) even when illegally(?) leaked by right-wing groups? AND...
...(4) reporters don’t owe anything to their readers in terms of coming clean when they make serious mistakes – just erase the false stuff you put out there and cover over the fact that you did it?
Read 4 tweets
5 Mar
3. HOLY SHIT. The prosecutor implicated in the rampant, egregious misconduct in this case is Queens DA @MelindaKatz’s CURRENT HOMICIDE BUREAU CHIEF!! nytimes.com/2021/03/05/nyr…
4. One further point that the court makes in overturning the convictions. It’s not just that the Queens prosecutors illegally withheld evidence. It’s worse than that: they were asked specifically whether they had certain information and they falsely asserted they didn’t have any.
5. I mean how on earth does @MelindaKatz not fire the prosecutor who did this? They were specifically, repeatedly asked whether they had exactly this information and they falsely denied having it – and made it seem to the judge that the defense was going on a fishing expedition.
Read 7 tweets
25 Feb
Maybe I’m missing something, but this claim by the head of the Oregon DA Assoc. seems false. I just did a quick check of a handful of states: NY, NJ, CA all had bigger violent crime rate drops between 1994 & 2019 (last year for which we have data). malheurenterprise.com/posts/8165
Dear @MalheurNews. I think you may have printed a flat out falsehood in your newspaper. (See above.) You may need to issue a correction. I might add: DAs tend to act this way. They lie and create fear to prevent reform. You might take note and fact-check them in the future.
This also seems false. Using FBI UCR data for 1994 and 2019 (the last year for which I have data), Oregon’s violent crime rate fell less than 50% not more than 50%. malheurenterprise.com/posts/8165
Read 4 tweets
6 Feb
A banner day for the 350+ year old American death penalty abolition movement. I’m proud to have spent much of my adult life representing the condemned in court and in the court of public opinion, even at moments when that was a lonely, unpopular, even reviled position.
As my law school professor Steve Bright always says, we are all more than the worst thing we have ever done. Humans are complicated and contradictory. They do horrible and beautiful things. They grow and change. Blessed are those us whose hearts are open to that complexity.
The death penalty is wrong for so many reasons, but among them is the way it cuts us all off from the most beautiful and hopeful aspects of the human condition, our ability and the ability of others to grow and change and even sometimes to transform ourselves.
Read 5 tweets

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