Last year, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D.) made the controversial decision to free a murderer serving a life sentence. On Friday, that man turned himself in to police and is expected to be charged in connection with a second murder.
Police announced Friday that 32-year-old Jahmir Harris was in custody following the fatal September shooting of Charles Gossett. Security footage shows Harris acting as a hit-and-run driver approaching the victim and two gunmen shooting Gossett in the back of the head.
Harris was convicted in 2012 of murdering 45-year-old Louis Porter and sentenced to life in prison without parole. But in 2021, Krasner’s office vacated Harris’ conviction, claiming his “constitutional rights were violated at the time of the prosecution.”
Common Pleas Court Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi criticized the move, saying she did not believe Harris had been proven innocent and questioned how Krasner “felt confident in releasing a murder suspect from prison when [his office] said a page ago that the criminal investigation into this matter was still ongoing.”
News of Harris’ repeat offense could spell trouble for Krasner, who has come under fire for his soft-on-crime policies. Pennsylvania’s House Select Committee on Law and Order Restoration is weighing articles of impeachment against Krasner, which the self-described progressive prosecutor has dismissed as a “political stunt.” Krasner’s campaign received nearly $1.7 million from left-wing megadonor George Soros’ Justice and Public Safety PAC in 2017.
Porter’s brother, Walter, recognized Harris in surveillance footage showing Gossett’s murder and notified police.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, this guy again,'” he told her Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s the same exact pattern.” The other attackers have not been identified.
Harris was convicted of killing Porter after a dispute over fake Percocet pills. An eyewitness identified Harris at the scene of the shooting. Porter’s five-year-old son was also present in the back seat of a parked car.
Krasner defended Harris’ acquittal last week, saying the “wrongful convictions” undermine public confidence in the justice system. His office says Harris’ “constitutional rights were violated” in the 2012 case after information about another suspect was not released to defense attorneys.
Krasner’s Sentencing Integrity Unit, which handles cases like Harris’, has exonerated about 30 convicts during his tenure. Prosecutors in the office say Harris is the first to kill.
But the Porter family told him interrogative she never doubted Harris’ conviction. Walter Porter said Gossett’s killing “reopens the wounds” of their family’s grief over the murder.
“I want to see justice,” Porter said. “Not just for my family. But I really want to see justice for this other family that’s suffering over there.”
