The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office missed the deadline to appoint a SEPTA prosecutor

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office has missed the deadline to appoint a special prosecutor to handle cases involving crimes around SEPTA property in Philadelphia, raising new questions about the future of a controversial law that has already sparked a legal challenge from District Attorney Larry Krasner.

The stalled rollout also comes as crime has continued on the city’s transit lines. A man was stabbed at the 15th Street Station early Thursday morning, and last week, 16-year-old Tyshaun Welles was shot and killed by a stray bullet at the same station on the Market-Frankford Line platform.

The attorney general’s office was supposed to have appointed someone to the newly created special prosecutor position by Jan. 13, according to legislation that outlines the role. The person is expected to investigate and prosecute crimes around SEPTA property in the city through 2026 — the duration of Krasner’s current term.

But Brett Hambright, a spokesperson for Attorney General Michelle Henry, said “the position remains posted” as of Thursday. He did not elaborate or answer additional questions about where the hiring process stands.

Few other key players in the political drama were eager to discuss the delayed rollout, either — despite some Republicans having hailed the measure as a crucial way to bolster public safety in the city.

“We continue to evaluate our options regarding this matter and remain confident that a special prosecutor will be appointed swiftly,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana), said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Gov. Josh Shapiro declined to comment on the fact that a bill Shapiro signed into law had not been implemented. (Shapiro, a Democrat, previously said he approved the measure as part of an overall state budget package).

Krasner has called the law “authoritarian” and sued in an attempt to have it overturned. He also held an hour-long news conference last week to call the law a politically motivated and unconstitutional attempt to strip powers away from his office and undermine the will of Philadelphia voters.

“You normalize that and then you normalize something else,” Krasner said. “What’s that? Selectively picking on the biggest urban center in Pennsylvania.”

Jane Roh, a spokesperson for Krasner, said Thursday that Henry should not follow through with appointing anyone because she “is required to oppose unconstitutional laws by her oath to uphold the constitution.”

Republicans in the state Capitol for years have taken aim at Krasner, a Democrat, and accused him of being too soft on crime and endangering city residents. Still, few of their efforts to undermine him have led to tangible changes. They impeached him in the state House in 2022, but the effort to remove him from office in a Senate trial is now caught up in the courts.

GOP members have also previously proposed laws that would bar Krasner from seeking a third term or allow for recall elections, though none has passed. One bill that did become law gave the attorney general’s office equal jurisdiction in prosecuting some city gun cases, but it has had little impact in the years since.

Krasner said last week that the SEPTA bill was another part of the GOP’s continued war on his office, and a host of supporters — including some elected officials — also cast it as a dangerous attempt by out-of-county Republicans to disenfranchise city residents.

Henry, the attorney general, said in a statement last week that her office was having trouble filling the role because of the “narrow requirements” for eligible candidates outlined in the bill.

The law says the special prosecutor must be a Philadelphia resident with at least five years of prosecutorial experience in Pennsylvania. But it also says the person cannot have worked in either the attorney general’s office or Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office within the past six years (the entirety of Krasner’s time as district attorney).

Hambright, the attorney general’s spokesperson, declined to say how many people had applied for the job, or when he expected it to be filled.