The Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to impeach Philadelphia’s progressive district attorney on Wednesday, setting up an impeachment trial in the state Senate.
DA Larry Krasner faces possible removal from office after lawmakers in the Republican-led House voted 107-85 to impeach him. The articles of impeachment accuse the district attorney of “misbehavior in office” and obstructing a legislative committee investigating his office. Republican lawmakers have blasted Krasner’s criminal justice reform policies as the cause of rising crime in the city.
Krasner’s impeachment trial will be the first conducted by the state Senate in nearly three decades, per CBS News.
Republicans have a 29 to 21 majority in the state Senate. Krasner’s removal would require support of two-thirds of the senators present.
“In the hundreds of years the Commonwealth has existed, this is the only time the House has used the drastic remedy of impeachment of an elected official because they do not like their ideas,” Krasner said in a statement reacting to the vote. “Those ideas are precisely why Philadelphia voters elected and re-elected me to serve as the Philly DA – in two landslides. These ideas include doing more and doing better for victims and survivors, solving crime through modern scientific enforcement, and investing deeply in the prevention of violence. And they are why elected officials who do not live or vote in Philadelphia are trying so hard to erase the votes of Philadelphians: because they preferred the status quo.”
He continued: “Each Philadelphia voter is not just 3/5ths of a voter. Philadelphia is not Pennsylvania’s colony. Philadelphians get taxation AND representation. Philadelphians’ votes, and Philadelphia voters, should not be erased.”
Krasner said “history will harshly judge this anti-democratic authoritarian effort to erase Philly’s votes – votes by Black, brown, and broke people in Philadelphia. And voters will have the last word.”
The House Select Committee on Restoring Law and Order issued a report on October 24 saying that there had been 992 homicides in the city over the previous 21.5 months, compared to 551 over the two-year period between 2015 and 2016. The report added that 18 to 20 percent of gun crimes were dropped by Krasner’s office, compared to 8 to 10 percent statewide.
Krasner’s office said 20 of the 54 U.S. cities with at least 10 murders in 2019 saw larger increases in homicides than Philadelphia did between 2019 and 2021. He is one of a wave of George Soros-funded prosecutors elected in major cities in recent years on a promise to radically overhaul the criminal justice system.
“This man has denied that there is even a crisis of crime happening on our streets,” said state Representative Martina White, a Republican from Philadelphia, according to CBS News. “No public official is above accountability, and if not for us in this chamber, he would have no oversight,”
The two-year legislative session is set to end in two weeks, but state Senator Kim Ward has said she plans to extend the session to take up the impeachment. The impeachment resolution directed Republican house speaker Bryan Cutler to name two Republicans and a Democrat to manage the case in the Senate. It is unclear how long the process may take.
In September, residents who have been impacted by violent crime in the city testified before a House committee as lawmakers worked to gather evidence in an effort to impeach Krasner. Several mothers who lost their children to homicide testified before the committee in-person and through pre-recorded video, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
One mother testified about her anger over her daughter’s killer being released on bail and her frustration over having not been given updates on the case by the prosecutor.
Several people who offered testimony suggested the district attorney’s office’s falling conviction rate for some crimes, including gun possession charges, has meant that offenders do not fear consequences.
Nakisha Billa, whose 21-year-old son was shot to death last year, told the committee: “I am here because of the lawlessness that continues to plague the city. This is not a political stance. This is a stance from a mother whose whole world has been turned upside down since the death of my son.”