Apology sanctions for misleading court were ‘mild and fitting,’ 3rd Circuit rules in appeal by DA’s office

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Apology sanctions for misleading court were…

Prosecutors Apology sanctions for misleading court were 'mild and fitting,' 3rd Circuit rules in appeal by DA's office

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 12, 2024, 3:55 pm CDT

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A federal judge did not abuse his discretion when he imposed “mild and fitting” sanctions on lawyers in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office for misleading statements made when they sought to vacate the death penalty in a double murder case. (Image from Shutterstock)

A federal judge did not abuse his discretion when he imposed “mild and fitting” sanctions on lawyers in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office for misleading statements made when they sought to vacate the death penalty in a double murder case.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia upheld the sanctions in a March 8 opinion, report Law.com, Law360 and the Volokh Conspiracy. How Appealing noted news coverage and linked to the opinion.

One of the sanctions required Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to write apology letters to four members of the families of the murder victims. The other required the office to be more forthcoming in the future.

U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania had imposed the sanctions in September 2022 for misleading statements by the district attorney’s office when it conceded the defendant’s ineffective counsel claim following a death penalty retrial. The office said it reached the decision after a review of the case and “communication with the victims’ family.”

The convicted man, Robert Wharton, had argued that his lawyer in the death penalty retrial was ineffective for failing to argue that he had adjusted well to prison.

But when conceding the ineffective assistance claim, the district attorney’s office never revealed that Wharton had tried to escape from courtroom custody in an unrelated case, resulting in a conviction, the 3rd Circuit said. Nor did the office reveal six instances of prison misconduct by Wharton, including twice being found with makeshift handcuff keys.

And the district attorney’s office communicated with only one family member—and it wasn’t the daughter of the victims, who was only 7 months old when she was left in freezing temperatures after Wharton killed her parents, Bradley and Ferne Hart, in 1984.

The person who was consulted, a brother of one of the victims, was never clearly told that the office planned to concede the death penalty, the 3rd Circuit said.

“The sanctions imposed were mild and fitting,” the 3rd Circuit said in an opinion by Judge Stephanos Bibas, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

Goldberg had directed the office to include a “full, balanced” explanation of facts when making future concessions, which serves the goal of deterrence, Bibas said. And the apology letter “may help soothe” the outrage of family members, who were “taken [a]back” when they learned of the concession by the district attorney’s office, according to Bibas.

“Courts rely on lawyers’ honesty; lawyers may not mislead them,” Bibas wrote.

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