PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Testimony wrapped Tuesday in the federal court hearing over how lawyers for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office handled, or mishandled, an appeal in a nearly two-decade-old murder case.
The appeal involved Dennis Johnson, who was convicted in 2009 of killing Kenyatta Smith at a Strawberry Mansion convenience store.
Attorneys David Napiorski and Peter Andrews echoed what their colleagues said last week: that when they realized errors were made in a 2022 court filing siding with the defendant, they tried to push District Attorney Larry Krasner to send the case to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.
They all said Krasner repeatedly refused, calling the attorney general’s office evil and said they should malign Jaclyn Mason, the lawyer who filed the concession, in an effort to “protect the office.” Napiorski said Krasner also threatened their jobs if they didn’t comply.
Johnson’s father Roy Clark said this has all been a distraction from his son’s case. “To me with the DA’s office in-house fighting, I don’t know what’s the remedy for that,” he said.
“I have been sitting in there and waiting for the meat and potatoes of the issue, because that is my son, and right now, they are going on with things about who messed up the brief and who did what with the filing.”
In testimony last week, Krasner was accused of calling the AG’s office “Paraguay” and the attorneys who work there “Nazis.”
Judge Paul Diamond will now decide whether there was misconduct in the handling of the appeal, and whether the DA’s office should still have a hand in the case.
Krasner has been under fire by both federal judges and the state Supreme Court for his office’s handling of overturning convictions. A prior supervisor in his office was disbarred for similar conduct by the federal court, while another was suspended.
Testimony wraps as supervisors say Krasner refused to send case to AG's office
Testimony wraps as supervisors say Krasner refused to send case to AG's office
