Ralph Cipriano at BigTrial.net takes Philly DA Larry Krasner to
task for his mishandling of a “slam- dunk” murder case.
When Michael White was going on trial for the murder of Sean
Schellenger, District Attorney Larry Krasner had no time to meet with the
victim's mother.
So on the Friday before jury selection was to begin on Monday,
Krasner had to tell Linda Schellenger during a hastily arranged phone call that
he was planning to drop a third-degree murder charge against White.
When Linda Schellenger protested that Krasner should let the
jury decide whether White committed murder or not, the D.A. exploded.
"He literally yelled at me on the phone," Linda
Schellenger recalled. He admonished her for "questioning his authority and
his intellect," she said, before telling her, "This is my
decision."
Before trial, Linda Schellenger had called the D.A.'s office for five straight
days trying to set up a meeting with Krasner, but he never called her back.
But more than a year before the case went to trial in October 2019, the D.A.
huddled behind closed doors for more than three hours with the accused killer
and his legal defense team composed of four lawyers and an investigator.
In contrast to how he treated Linda Schellenger, Krasner had
plenty of time -- and sympathy -- for Michael White.
"This is not going to be some kind of hard cross examination,"
Krasner began by telling White. "Uh, we'll listen to you for whatever that
takes . . ."
During that July 25, 2018 meeting between White and the D.A., Krasner came
across like a public defender or the career defense lawyer that he was for 30
years before he was elected D.A. At times Krasner sounded like a social worker;
anything but a prosecutor.
But when he met with White, Krasner was the sitting district attorney of
Philadelphia who was about to tank a high-profile, slam-dunk murder case.
The session between Krasner, White and his lawyers was
technically known as a proffer.
A proffer is an interview conducted pursuant to a written
agreement drawn up between a prosecutor and a criminal defendant that allows
the defendant to tell the government about his knowledge of a crime without
suffering the usual consequences.
The proffer comes with the assurance that if the defendant
subsequently testifies as a prosecution witness, as long as he tells the truth
and sticks to the same story, the defendant doesn't have to worry about what he
said at the proffer being used against him in court.
A prosecutor will typically arrange a proffer with a defendant
to find out if he's willing to give up any unindicted co-conspirators, or any
previously unknown details of a crime.
Prosecutors will tell you that there was no reason to conduct a
proffer with White, because he acted alone, there were eyewitnesses, and the
entire crime was caught on video. Hence, there wasn't much to learn by meeting
behind closed doors with the accused killer.
But under Krasner, the career defense lawyer, the purpose of the
proffer flipped from playing offense to defense. Under Krasner, the proffer
became a prep session coach up White, so he could beat the rap.
It was highly unusual for a sitting district attorney to
personally involve himself in a high profile murder case. It was also unusual
for the D.A.'s office to voluntarily share with White all of the prosecution's
evidence that they intended to use against him at trial.
At a proffer, the normal playbook for a prosecutor is to have
the defendant walk in naked, knowing nothing about what the prosecution knows
or doesn't know. And then it's time for the defendant to start talking, and
give up everything he knows about the crime.
But that's not the way Larry Krasner played the game. The
evidence against White that the D.A. voluntarily shared with the accused killer
and his team of lawyers included statements from witnesses, as well as a cell
phone video taken by a bystander that showed White plunging a black, foot-long
serrated knife with a seven-inch blade into the back of an unarmed Sean
Schellenger.
The knife sunk so deep, some seven inches, that it pierced
Schellenger's aorta.
While Schellenger bled to death in Rittenhouse Square, White ran
away, catching a subway to his aunt's house. Along the way, he threw his bloody
t-shirt in a trash can, and the bloody knife that was the murder weapon on top
of a roof.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
How To Tank A High-Profile, Slam-Dunk Murder Case | Big Trial | Philadelphia Trial Blog
