By Gavin Fish, September 3, 2025
Judge Linda Carpenter blasted Philadelphia officials for dragging their feet on a promised review in the Ellen Greenberg case, saying six months is “ridiculous.”
If you’ve been following the Ellen Greenberg case for any amount of time, you already know it’s been delay after delay after delay. Well, today in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Judge Linda Carpenter finally said what everyone else has been thinking: enough already.
During a Zoom hearing, Carpenter lit into the city’s lawyer over why it’s taken so long to change Ellen’s manner of death from suicide to undetermined. That review was supposed to happen “expeditiously” as part of the Greenbergs’ settlement with the city back on February 3. But here we are, seven months later to the day, and nothing’s been done.
The judge didn’t hold back. At one point she flat out said, “Under no one’s definition of expeditious is six months expeditious. And when I have somebody in front of a roomful of people trying to tell the court that somehow the court’s supposed to accept it as expeditious, it’s ridiculous. And you obviously just don’t care. And that’s probably why the Greenbergs are so frustrated.”
That’s not the kind of thing judges usually say in open court. Not in my experience, anyway.
She also questioned why the city hasn’t just fixed the ruling already. “I never really understood why this couldn’t be changed to undetermined from the beginning,” she said. “The original ME said it was homicide. He made that based on the evidence that was in front of him at the time.”
If you’re new to this case, here’s a quick refresher.
Ellen Greenberg was a 27-year-old teacher in Philadelphia who was found dead in 2011 with 20 stab wounds, including to the back of her head and neck. Her fiancé said he broke into their apartment and found her with a 10-inch knife in her chest. The very first autopsy ruled it homicide, but then it was switched to suicide. Experts have since said it would’ve been medically and physically impossible for her to stab herself that many times.
So Ellen’s parents, Josh and Sandee, sued the city. They settled earlier this year where the city agreed to pay damages and promised a quick review of her manner of death. The money’s been paid, finally, but the review? Still dragging.
Carpenter was clearly fed up. She even floated the idea of just doing it herself. “Why can’t I just change it back to homicide?” she asked. “Why can’t the court just do it?”
In the end, instead of taking that drastic step, she kicked the can down the road one more time. After a private discussion with the lawyers, the case was continued to October 14. Both sides agreed.
So we wait again. But here’s the thing: Carpenter’s frustration was obvious, and it’s now on the record. She said it herself, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” That’s exactly how it feels for the Greenbergs, who’ve been fighting for more than a fourteen years just to get the word “suicide” off their daughter’s death certificate.
