Marquise Alexander of Philadelphia, was convicted in a harrowing home invasion and gunpoint robbery oif co-worker Otis Ryans, 30. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner described Alexander, 28, as “a man who just can’t stop robbing people – he just can’t stop robbing them with guns.” He’s the type of defendant who inspired Krasner to start Philadelphia’s first Prolific Gun Offenders Unit. Krasner launched the unit this April with $800,000 from the Philadelphia City Council, reports The Trace. The mission is prosecuting repeat, violent gun offenders, with prior arrests or felony convictions. The lawyers find them when they face new charges for robberies, straw purchasing firearms, manufacturing and distributing ghost guns, and other related gun crimes. The unit includes a supervising prosecutor, three assistant district attorneys for adult cases and one for juvenile cases. It does not handle cases involving shootings. The unit will go after people accused of repeatedly using guns to commit crimes, not people whose only crime is possessing a gun without a carry permit.
The idea behind the new unit, Krasner said, is that a relatively small number of people commit many of the city’s gun crimes. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of people to do a whole lot of crime,” he said. “For people who are illegally possessing firearms and doing it repeatedly … you’re looking at a very dangerous population, and we have to dig in on that small number of people.” The unit has identified about 110 cases to prosecute, said its supervisor, Jeffrey Palmer. The prosecutors also handle bail-revocation hearings and collaborate with the office’s Charging Unit to appeal low cash bail rulings for violent gun offenders. "What we’re focusing on is getting ADAs who have more experience and hopefully a lower caseload so that they can focus more intently on these offenders," Palmer said. The Prolific Gun Offenders Unit has emerged as gun crimes are plummeting compared to this time last year. Through August 18, the number of shooting victims is down 38.5 percent, gun robberies are down 41.3 percent, aggravated assaults with guns are down 16.6 percent, and stolen autos are down 40.3 percent.
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