Shanin Specter, the acclaimed trial attorney and son of former DA and U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, has known Judge Diamond for 40 years. His father recommended Diamond to President George W. Bush for the federal bench. Shanin says criminal law classes should study Diamond’s order, for some of the very reasons Krasner has criticized it: Its moral rectitude, and yet its humility and refusal to rush to judgment.

“The people who live and/or work in Philadelphia can take a lot of solace in the fact that we have a guardian of the people in our community,” he told me. “I’ve read Judge Diamond’s order twice. It is a model of understated brilliance. He was able to marshal together a tremendous number of facts, each one with a citation to part of the record. It’s as easy to read for a layperson as a lawyer.”