Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is castigating state Republican legislators over a new law that aims to strip away some of his prosecutorial authority.
Under the law, Act 40, a special prosecutor appointed by the state Attorney General could opt to take over the investigation and prosecution of any crimes committed within SEPTA.
The state Senate passed the bill in May but it seems to have gotten little attention until Gov. Josh Shapiro signed it into law last Thursday, along with 30 other bills.
Krasner attacked the measure, calling it an unconstitutional infringement of the right of city residents to elect their chief prosecutor. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Wayne Langerholc of Cambria County in west-central Pa., has criticized Krasner for not prosecuting more crimes, while saying the bill only affects SEPTA.
The move comes more than a year after the state’s Republican-led House voted to impeach Krasner over the city’s high crime rates. A panel of state judges later ruled the impeachment could not proceed and Republicans appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Here’s a closer look at the new law and how it might play out in the coming months.
What does the new law say?
The bill amends a section of state transportation law to require Attorney General Michelle Henry to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes “occurring within” SEPTA within 30 days.
Langerholc and Krasner differ on what “occurring within” means. More on that below.
The appointee must be a Philadelphia resident, and can’t have worked for Krasner or Henry’s offices within the last six years — that is, since Krasner was first elected in 2017.
The special prosecutor can use lawyers and resources from the state Attorney’s Office to conduct investigations and prosecutions, but the city is on the hook for the prosecutor’s expenses.
The special prosecutor will only have jurisdiction on parts of SEPTA within Philadelphia — not in the other four counties where the transit agency operates — and their authority expires at the end of 2026.
How’d the bill come about?
Langerholc, chair of the state Senate Transportation Committee, told The Tribune-Democrat that committee members toured SEPTA two years ago. They found that riders and employees were overwhelmingly concerned about crime and that it was impacting ridership.
The committee held hearings in Philadelphia in May 2022 and “members heard firsthand that law enforcement is stymied by a failure to follow through after arrests are made,” Langerholc later said.
When the Senate approved the bill in May 2023, the Republican legislator said the special prosecutor “would address the sweeping inaction of the current Philadelphia District Attorney and ensure scofflaws will answer for their crimes, since the current DA has a systemic record of failing to prosecute assaults on victims.”
“This dereliction of duty has cast a negative light on the City of Philadelphia and the commonwealth, which has significantly impacted safety and ridership,” Langerholc said. “My legislation will help restore law and order on SEPTA’s buses, trolleys, trains, and stations.”
Several Democrats attacked the bill during the Senate debate, saying safety issues at SEPTA were not Krasner’s fault and it was wrong to preempt his powers.
The measure “says directly to the citizens of Philadelphia that you cannot choose who your district attorney is, who your prosecutor is…[and] your rights to choose who you have in elected office are less than those for every other citizen in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Sen. Vincent Hughes said.
The bill seemed to go dormant, but last week the Democratic-controlled House passed it 159-44, with 58 Democrats voting for the measure, and Shapiro signed it Thursday.
What are critics saying?
Krasner characterized Act 40 as a continuation of Republicans’ earlier effort to remove him despite his large margins of victory in two elections. He compared the legislators to former president Donald Trump.
“This is an attack on democracy,” Krasner said before Shapiro signed the bill. “This is normalizing the erasure of Philadelphia votes. This is what people who want to be dictators do.”
He called on Attorney General Henry to declare the measure unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
“We will not allow 155,000 people who voted for this DA and 60,000 people who voted against to be erased. We will not allow that,” he said. “There is an army of people standing behind me who have been blowing up my phone since this thing went through.”
Sen. Sharif Street said Krasner and other opponents of the new law have several grounds for contesting its legitimacy in court.
While it came out of a transportation committee, it’s really a law enforcement bill with an overly broad scope, he said. Its targeting of Philadelphia, the state’s only majority-minority county, means it has a disparate impact on non-white communities.
“What the General Assembly has suggested, what the makers of the bill suggested, is that in the only county that’s majority Black and brown…that we can’t be trusted to select who makes prosecutorial decisions,” he said.
Street also said the law doesn’t make clear the extent of the special prosecutor’s jurisdiction. An analysis by Senate Democrats of Act 40 and related laws found it could be construed to give the appointee power over prosecutions within 500 yards of any SEPTA station, which would cover much of the city and “eviscerate” Krasner’s authority, Street said.
Langerholc said that analysis was incorrect, and noted the law allows but does not require the special prosecutor to take over investigations within SEPTA. He argued the law was not impinging on the District Attorney’s responsibilities.
“This is not going to inhibit Philadelphia prosecution in any way. [Krasner’s] still going to be district attorney. He still can have his staff prosecute crimes where they occur. This is for SEPTA,” he told The Tribune-Democrat.
Where do others stand on Act 40?
Gov. Shapiro’s office declined to comment on Act 40, and referred to a statement he made last week at a bill-signing ceremony.
“As I made clear in my comments, this was a package that was agreed to by both majority leaders and I intend to sign all these bills,” he said.
While most — but not all — of the Democratic legislators from Philadelphia voted specifically against the bill that became Act 40, the final legislative package had the approval of leaders from both parties.
Those include the House Speaker, Philadelphia Rep. Joanna McClinton, a former public defender who Krasner has praised in the past. McClinton’s office declined to comment except to note that she voted against the bill in the House.
Langerholc has repeatedly said SEPTA, or specifically its board, supported the bill. “SEPTA supports this… I do not know the politics of that board, I can just tell you what we were given, that they support it,” he said during the Senate debate.
Meanwhile, Sen. Street, in his debate remarks, said, “there is, at best, confused communication… from SEPTA and its board and its leadership.”
SEPTA declined to comment on its current position on the new law or its impact. “We are in contact with the Attorney General’s Office to learn more about the law and what will be required of SEPTA and the SEPTA Transit Police. Once we have those conversations, we will be in a better position to provide some insight,” spokesperson Andrew Busch said.
Duquesne University law professor Bruce Ledowitz told the Inquirer that Act 40 appears to be constitutional, but implementation would be complicated, its funding source is unclear, and the Attorney General is unlikely to want to take on SEPTA cases through a special prosecutor.
“I can’t think of a reason to do it except of course to embarrass the DA, which is why this is being done,” he told the Inquirer. “It’s just a piece of political theater.”
What happens next?
The law says Attorney General Henry must appoint a special prosecutor within 30 days.
Her spokesperson told the Inquirer her staff was in the process of reviewing the legislation “to fully understand the parameters of the jurisdictional complexities, what the office’s responsibilities will be under the law, and how the funding will occur.”
Krasner and Street said they expect the law will face a court challenge. So stay tuned.
