PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A federal appeals court has upheld sanctions against the District Attorney’s Office for the way it handled the appeal of a death row inmate following his first-degree murder conviction.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a federal judge’s ruling that District Attorney Larry Krasner and his office misled the family of a couple who were murdered in 1984.
Bradley and Ferne Hart were killed inside their Mount Airy home. Their baby daughter Lisa was left in the home, freezing — until she was later rescued.
Robert Wharton was one of two defendants convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
In 2019 the District Attorney’s Office sided with Wharton on his appeal to be resentenced to life in prison — based on false claims that he had been a model prisoner.
A review by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General found that Wharton had been cited several times for breaking prison rules, and that the D.A.’s office had failed to inform the judge.
The appellate court found Krasner, who opposes the death penalty, and his office were not fully honest with members of the Hart family, and never shared the plan to side with Wharton in his desire to be resentenced to life in prison.
The family has said they strongly oppose a life sentence.
Wharton remains on death row, though the state moratorium on the death penalty continues.
In 2022, Judge Mitchell Goldberg ordered Krasner to write a letter of apology to the family, explaining everything, and he blasted the two supervising attorneys, Nancy Winkelman and Paul George, saying they “failed their duty of candor,” adding that lawyers must be fully honest in what they present to the court and the families.
The appeals court, which handed down its opinion late last week wrote: “They made mistakes; they should have investigated more before approving the misstatements,” adding that they do not believe the D.A.’s office misled the court intentionally.