Larry Krasner

Lawrence Samuel Krasner (born March 30, 1961) is an American attorney who has served as the 26th District Attorney of Philadelphia since 2018. Krasner was one of the first U.S. district attorney candidates to run as a self-described "progressive prosecutor". He campaigned on a platform to reform elements of the criminal justice system and to reduce incarceration.

First elected to the position in 2017, Krasner was re-elected to a second term in 2021 and a third term in 2025. Krasner's policies include ending criminal charges against those caught with marijuana possession, ending cash bail for those accused of some misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, reducing supervision for parolees, and seeking more lenient sentences for certain crimes. During his time in office, he has pursued police misconduct and advocated for greater police accountability.

Krasner has served as a polarizing figure in Philadelphia politics, with supporters crediting Krasner for the city's reduction in homicides throughout his tenure, while opponents have argued his policies are "soft on crime". In 2022, Krasner was impeached by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on multiple counts; several counts related to various alleged "dereliction of duty" and "misbehavior in office", and another alleged that Krasner had attempted to obstruct the legislative probe that led to his impeachment. This 2026 decision resulted in the Pennsylvania Attorney General being given the authority to veto attempts by Krasner's office to undo previous convictions.

Early life, education, and career Krasner was born in St. Louis in 1961. His father, William Krasner, was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants and an author of crime fiction, and his mother, Juanita Frazier, was an evangelical Christian minister. Krasner graduated from Conestoga High School in Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania, in 1979. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1983, and a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1987. specializing in civil rights and frequently representing protestors pro bono. Williams resigned from office and pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in June 2017; his interim replacement, Kathleen Martin, chose not to run.

Shortly before Krasner announced his candidacy, John McNesby, president of Lodge 5 of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, derided Krasner's intention to enter the race as "hilarious". Krasner ran his campaign on a platform to eliminate cash bail, address police misconduct and end mass incarceration. He campaigned against existing policies that had resulted in disproportionately high numbers of minority males being jailed. Krasner was a featured speaker at the 2017 People's Summit.

Krasner won the May 16, 2017, Democratic primary with 38% of the vote, defeating former city and federal prosecutor Joe Khan, former Philadelphia Managing Director Rich Negrin, former First Assistant District Attorney Tariq El-Shabazz, former prosecutor Michael Untermeyer, former prosecutor Jack O'Neill, and former Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni. City officials reported voter turnout spiked nearly 50 percent compared to 2009, which was the last contested race for district attorney of Philadelphia.

The primary was widely seen as a proxy election; the winner of the Democratic primary election is the presumptive victor of the general election since Philadelphia has almost seven times as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans. As expected, the November general election was not competitive, with Krasner winning almost three times as many votes as his Republican opponent, former assistant district attorney Beth Grossman.

2021

In his 2021 campaign for re-election, Krasner faced Carlos Vega in the Democratic primary. Vega was fired by Krasner from the Philadelphia DA office when Krasner began implementing reforms within the office. Vega, as a prosecutor, was involved in retrying Anthony Wright on rape and murder charges even after DNA evidence showed another man had committed the crime. The top spender in the campaign was a political action committee formed by retired cops. During the campaign, Krasner's opponents argued that his criminal justice reform policies had contributed to an increase in violent crime; however, criminal justice experts said there was no evidence to substantiate this claim.

On May 18, the Associated Press called the primary for Krasner, leading 65% to 35% with 22% of the votes counted.

2025

On February 18, 2025, Krasner officially launched his bid for a third term as Philadelphia District Attorney. He was challenged in the Democratic primary by Patrick Dugan, a 17-year Philadelphia Municipal Court judge who quit in 2024 to run for the office. Dugan, previously known for establishing diversion courts, argued the justice system had "tilted too far toward leniency" and campaigned for a "tougher approach", He stated he could not "stand by and allow Mr. Krasner's failed policies to continue to hold our city hostage". This move drew "angry condemnations" from Democratic leaders including Philadelphia Democratic Party chair Bob Brady and caused a former core Dugan supporter, Building Trades Council leader Ryan Boyer, to switch his endorsement to Krasner.

Tenure

In his first week in office, Krasner fired 31 prosecutors from the District Attorney's Office, including both junior and career supervisory staff. Those fired represented nearly a 10% reduction in the number of Philadelphia assistant district attorneys.

In February 2018, Krasner announced that law enforcement would no longer pursue criminal charges against those caught with marijuana possession. That same month, Krasner instructed prosecutors to stop seeking cash bail for those accused of some misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Krasner said that it was unfair to keep people in detention simply because they could not afford bail.

In March 2018, it was reported that Krasner's staffers were working on creating a sentence review unit to review past cases and sentences and to seek resentencing in instances where individuals were given unduly harsh punishments. That same month, Krasner instructed prosecutors to reduce sentence lengths to defendants making pleas, refuse to bring certain low-level charges, and publicly explain their reasoning for pursuing expensive incarcerations to taxpayers footing the bills. He said, "Fiscal responsibility is a justice issue, and it is an urgent justice issue. A dollar spent on incarceration should be worth it. Otherwise, that dollar may be better spent on addiction treatment, on public education, on policing and on other types of activity that make us all safer."

In 2018, some judges rejected the reduced sentences which Krasner's prosecutors had sought for juveniles who had previously been sentenced to life in prison.

In June 2018, Krasner called for the compiling of a comprehensive list of police officers who had lied while on duty, used excessive force, racially profiled, or violated civil rights, an unprecedented move to spotlight dishonest police officers and check their future courtroom testimony.

In 2019, Krasner filed a motion in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to declare capital punishment in Pennsylvania unconstitutional. He claimed the death penalty was illegal in the state because of the ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the Pennsylvania Constitution, citing the high turnover rates of convictions by appeals, the racially biased number of sentences given to black and Hispanic defendants, and the large number of convictions overturned due to ineffective counsel.

Krasner's progressive policies have caused Republicans in the Pennsylvania General Assembly to take steps to divert Krasner's authority to prosecute crime in Philadelphia to other officials. In 2019, the legislature passed a bill that established concurrent-jurisdiction between the District Attorney's Office and the Pennsylvania Attorney General to prosecute gun crimes in Philadelphia.

Following the fatal shooting of Philadelphia police officer James O'Connor IV, Krasner faced criticism from William McSwain, a federal prosecutor appointed by Donald Trump. On March 13, as part of a SWAT unit carrying out an arrest warrant, O'Connor was fatally shot and Elliott was charged. Prosecutor spokeswoman Jane Roh responded to criticism by stating that the office believed murder to be a more serious crime than drug possession and charged Elliott accordingly. On the night of O'Connor's death, Philadelphia police officers formed a human chain at Temple University Hospital entrance to prevent Krasner from entering.

In September 2021, Krasner started an Alternative Felony Diversion program for people charged with illegal possession of firearms. In 2024 it was reported that the program was associated with a 76 percent reduction in re-arrests.

As of April 2022, Krasner's Conviction Integrity Unit had exonerated 25 people convicted under previous DAs.

In 2023, the legislature established a separate office, SEPTA, to prosecute crimes committed on Philadelphia's public transit system. The PAC offered daily cash prizes to registered voters in swing states who sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

Krasner garnered significant controversy in the aftermath of the kidnapping and murder of Kada Scott in October 2025. Keon King, the suspect in Scott's murder, had previously been arrested in January 2025 for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting an ex-girlfriend, but was subsequently released after charges were dropped by Krasner's office. Krasner later apologized for his office's handling of the case.

In January 2026, Krasner joined a nationwide coalition of prosecutors working to identify and prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who committed criminal acts, saying, "If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you. We will achieve justice."

In June, Krasner's office was rebuked by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after several prosecutors seeking to overturn murder convictions repeatedly lied to and misled judges. The court's ruling also mandated the Pennsylvania Attorney General review future conviction annulments. A month later, a former prosecutor with Krasner's office testified in federal court that her supervisor "colluded" with defense lawyers and did not review evidence when seeking to overturn a murder conviction.

2022 impeachment In June 2022, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to form the Select Committee on Restoring Law and Order. The vote was 114 in favor and 86 opposed, and was largely along party lines (with all but one Republican voting in favor, and all but four Democrats voting against). The committee was tasked with investigating possible grounds for impeachment for what they called Krasner's "dereliction of duty" in handling Philadelphia's gun violence crisis. In August 2022, Krasner was subpoenaed by the committee but said that his office would not comply with the subpoena which he claimed was "wholly illegitimate" and politically motivated. He subsequently filed a petition with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania to halt the select committee's impeachment probe. In September, the Pennsylvania House voted to find Krasner in contempt for defying the committee's subpoena for documents related to his prosecutorial policies. Following the contempt vote, Krasner partially complied with the subpoena and provided the committee with "a number of documents", however some of the documents provided were already publicly available online, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. On October 6, Krasner filed an additional petition with the Commonwealth Court to invalidate the subpoena.

On October 26, articles of impeachment were filed against Krasner charging him with "misbehavior in office" and attempting to obstruct the select committee's investigation into him. The House Judiciary Committee approved the articles of impeachment in a party-line vote on November 15. The next day, Krasner was impeached by the State House in a 107-85 vote; one Republican and all Democratic members of the House voted against a total of seven articles of impeachment. He was the first person to be impeached by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since state Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen in 1994.

On December 30, 2022, Judge Ellen Ceisler of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court issued a court order saying that Krasner's official actions in office did not meet the requirements by the state's constitution for impeachment. Following the court order, the Pennsylvania State Senate voted on January 11, 2023, to indefinitely postpone the impeachment trial which was originally scheduled for January 18. A day after the vote to indefinitely postpone, the full Commonwealth Court issued a split decision in which the majority of justices agreed with Ceisler's December 30 court order.

On September 26, 2024, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the articles of impeachment against Krasner had expired when the 2021–2022 legislative session expired.

Memoir Penguin Random House published Krasner's memoir, For the People: A Story of Justice and Power, in 2021.

Personal life Krasner is married to Lisa M. Rau, a retired judge of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Krasner and Rau have two sons, Nate and Caleb.

Krasner has a 40 percent partnership stake in Tiger Building LP, which owns the Princeton Club building among other Philadelphia properties.

Electoral history

Historical election results can be found on the Philadelphia City Commissioners web site under Past Election Results.