Low
Conviction Rates in Criminal Cases against NYPD
Officer Richard Haste faces up to 25 years in prison if
convicted of first degree manslaughter in the Bronx shooting of 18-year-old
Ramarley Graham. But law enforcement experts say officers are rarely convicted
in criminal misconduct cases.
In other incidents, like the shootings of Sean Bell or
Amadou Diallo, criminal charges against officers didn't stick. Attorney Cynthia
Conti-Cook, who often represents clients in excessive use of force cases, said
when officers say they feared for their life, judges or juries usually return
judgments in their favor.
"If an officer
says 'gun' or believes there's a gun involved — as they know they have to in
order to justify the use of force — we collectively hesitate to doubt
them," she explained.
Conti-Cook said other
factors that affected the outcome in cases against the NYPD were when trials
got a change of venue out of the local area or when officers waved the right to
a jury trial.
The Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association has said in many cases, police officers only have a
split second to react in dangerous situations and those moments can mean life
or death for officers.
John Jay College of
Criminal Justice professor and co-author of the book The Crime Numbers Game:
Management by Manipulation, Eli Silverman believes another reason many cases
don’t move beyond an indictment is because it's hard to determine what actually
happened.
“It’s usually a
situation of he said, she said,” Silverman explained, “and if the person died
and there are no witnesses that makes it very difficult and so more often than
not in these type of cases the person will not be convicted.”
One high profile
exception was the sexual abuse and assault case of Abner Louima in the 1990’s,
where officers were convicted and served prison time.