Krasner's Philly: Win your freedom after 25 years on Death Row, get executed on the street

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

It continually baffles me why these Democratic bastions go for the most mediocre – sometimes outright malevolent – hands down worst choices every single time. City residents watch their world dissolve around them, solely through the actions of the very individuals they return to office time and time again, yet nothing but nothing will shake them free of their mindless devotion to their own destruction. New York City’s a terrific example of that mindset.

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So is Philadelphia.

How many Philadelphians must be killed before the city stops voting for Democrats?

…Since Krasner was elected, prosecutions of gun crimes have fallen considerably. Under his watch, there has been a 17% increase in withdrawals or dismissals of gun charges. This has coincided with a nearly 60% drop in guilty pleas in gun crime cases — why plead guilty when you’re not going to be prosecuted?

Philadelphia now has the highest violent crime rate of any U.S. city with a population of greater than 1 million. Of the 10 largest cities in the U.S., Philadelphia has the highest homicide rate per capita. These statistics will only get worse while Democrats such as Krasner are in charge.

The city’s criminals know that the inmates are running the asylum, and there’s little accountability for the actions of anyone in government. Krasner and the city’s Democrats tried to develop a radical, left-wing nirvana, and this dystopia is the direct result. Criminals will continue to flourish so long as Soros-funded politicians are elected to wreak their ideologically based havoc on innocent people.

For years to come, Philadelphians will get the crime and chaos they overwhelmingly voted for.

I did a post earlier in September on the skyrocketing crime and shortages in the police department then. Remember the Wawa convenience stores being swarmed and cleaned out? There were also fellows setting up ambushes to rob motorists of their vehicles. Soros-backed Philly DA Larry Krasner was in the beginning stages of being impeached by the state legislature.

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How have we been doing since then?

Such as they are, the milestones are all downhill. Tuesday was memorable. Krasner should be so proud of what he’s accomplished.

For the second straight year, Philadelphia has reached an unimaginable level of deadly violence.

Police confirmed Tuesday that the city has recorded its 500th homicide in 2022.

It happened on Sunday afternoon when a man was shot on the 6300 block of 18th Street in the city’s Ogontz section. He died hours later.

The deadliest year on record was 2021 when the city recorded 562 homicides.

…So far this year, 218 juveniles have been shot. That’s up nearly 7.5 percent from last year.

A 14-year-old boy is among the latest shooting victims in the city. The teen was shot while taking out the trash Monday night. Police say he is listed as stable, but the search is still on for the gunman.

I’m sure Krasner’s peeps can knock out that record by the 31st. Darn near a week and a half to hit 63.

One of the sadder stories – and every single one of the non-gangbanger/innocent bystander/minding their own business murders is unspeakable savagery, period – is a one-off killing that happened last Friday. There are times when life truly, truly isn’t fair.

His name was Christopher Williams. A father of six, and a man who’d just gotten to spend a smidge less than two years home with his family after 25 years on Death Row and 29 total years in prison. Convicted of four murders, acquitted of two, he’d spent almost three decades in prison until a jailhouse snitch recanted his testimony. Further investigation revealed the prosecuting DA had withheld favorable evidence, among other egregious violations.

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…Testimony from two men, one of whom was testifying in exchange for more lenient sentencing in his own six murder cases, had linked Williams and Wilson to the murders.

In 2011 however, one of the men recanted his testimony against Williams and Wilson in relation to the triple murder in 1989. An expert also concluded that based on available blood evidence and the condition of the bodies, the three men had been killed where they were found rather than thrown from a moving van as the two men who testified against Williams and Wilson had claimed.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) also discovered there was a significant amount of evidence in Williams’ favor that had been withheld from the initial trial, including reports of alternate suspects and accounts that contradicted those of the men who testified against him. They also uncovered evidence showing the two men who testified against Williams had been induced to testify by the Commonwealth.

Based on the new evidence, Williams was exonerated of his triple homicide conviction in December 2019 while Wilson was exonerated in January 2020.

Despite this however, Williams remained in prison on the Haynesworth conviction. The CIU then revisited that case and found that the testimony against Williams was inconsistent with the available physical evidence.

Following a recommendation from the CIU, Williams was exonerated a second time on February 9, 2021, and finally free from prison after 29 years.

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He’d spent his time keeping in touch with people he’d met behind bars and making up for lost time with his kids.

…Since his release last year, Williams maintained relationships with people he’d met in prison and would frequently return to pay them a visit. He also consistently advocated for others he believed were wrongly convicted.

Williams’ youngest son, Christopher Hartwell, said his father touched “everybody he talked to.” His father worked as a carpenter and recently asked him to help on a job, which Hartwell said he now realizes was just an excuse to spend time together.

“Speaking on the year and eight months I had him out here, he taught me how to be a better man. He helped me be a better father myself,” he said.

On Friday, part of a funeral procession, he was shot once in the head as he stepped out of his car at the cemetery.

…On Friday around 2:20 p.m., Philadelphia police responded to the 3000 block of West Lehigh Avenue for a report of a person with a gun. When they arrived they found 62-year-old Christopher Williams suffering from gunshot wounds to the head.

Wiliams was taken to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:27 p.m. that day.

None of it seems fair. But it’s what Philadelphia votes for, no matter the tragedies on the sidewalks, parks, and neighborhoods around them.

The impeachment of chief crime enabler DA Larry Krasner is creeping along. The Pennsylvania State Senate is scheduled to hold its trial next month. Krasner is kicking and screaming – doing everything he can to fend off the hounds in the meantime.

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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday said the charges on which he is to be tried before the Pennsylvania Senate next month in a Republican-led attempt to impeach and remove him from office are improper, not supported by evidence, and should be dismissed.

Those arguments and others were outlined in Krasner’s formal response to the articles of impeachment filed against him, which were accepted by the upper chamber last month after the state House approved them in a party-line vote. Legislators pursuing impeachment have accused Krasner of enacting policies that have fueled the city’s shooting crisis, obstructing a legislative committee investigating his office, and other offenses.

Krasner, a Democrat, has made no secret of his opposition to the impeachment drive, frequently casting it as illegal and politically motivated. He has also filed suit in Commonwealth Court challenging the charges and asking that they be thrown out.

In January, the city is due to reassess whether their new community-based programs to reduce gun violence have produced results. That will depend on what their definition of “results” is and how lucrative the community found the grants from the programs. The police department also managed to solve 23% of the non-fatal shootings this year with a new unit focusing on those. To me, that’s a pretty appalling percentage, but to a department understaffed and under siege?

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They’ll take the win.

Hopefully, the Senate can yank Krasner out with a shepherd’s hook in January.

That would be a win, too…as long he’s not replaced with a carbon copy.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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