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[s] of duty" and "misbehavior[s] in office", and another alleged that Krasner had attempted to obstruct the legislative probe that led to his impeachment. After an impeachment trial was indefinitely postponed, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the articles of impeachment had expired in 2024. In 2026, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that Krasner's Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office "has repeatedly lacked candor to the court, misrepresented facts, failed to conduct adequate investigations, and inexplicably dodged necessary evidentiary hearings." This 2026 decision resulted in the Pennsylvania Attorney General being given the authority to veto attempts by Krasner's office to undo previous convictions.
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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.
Following his law graduation and bar passage, Krasner returned to Philadelphia and became a public defender. He opened his law firm in 1993 and worked as a criminal defense lawyer in Philadelphia for 30 years, specializing in civil rights and frequently representing protestors pro bono. After the 2000 Republican National Convention (RNC), Krasner represented some of the 400 protestors arrested at the time, most of whom were acquitted.
Philadelphia District Attorney
Elections
Philadelphia district attorney R. Seth Williams announced in February 2017 that he would not run for reelection. 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.
Krasner's representation of Black Lives Matter and Occupy Philadelphia members led many to call him an "anti-establishment" candidate during the Democratic primary campaign. 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.
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.
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.
Krasner also announced that the DA's office had filed a lawsuit against a number of pharmaceutical companies for their role in the city's opioid epidemic. Krasner instructed prosecutors to stop charging sex workers who had fewer than three convictions.
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.
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.