Source: ALEX KENT / Getty
The New York City criminal system is trying to right their wrongs. The District Attorney is set to throw out 188 cases tied to police misconduct.
As spotted on Gothamist, District Attorney Alvin Bragg is on a mission to win back the trust of The Big Apple. This week he and his office announced that they will be vacating the almost 200 convictions that involved local police officers who were either corrupt, lied, falsified evidence or were involved in other types of wrongdoing. The vacaturs are part of an ongoing review of more than 1,100 cases connected to a list of 22 former NYPD officers convicted of crimes provided to the office in 2021 by public defender and advocacy groups.
Bragg detailed this initiative in a formal statement. “Trust and confidence are essential to achieving public safety” he said. “New Yorkers must know that everyone is acting with the utmost integrity in the pursuit of equal justice under the law. Without that belief, our criminal justice system will never be able to deliver real and lasting safety that every community deserves”.
This all comes about from the recent forming of the Post-Conviction Justice Unit. The PCJU facilitates independent and impartial post-conviction reinvestigation done in collaboration with impacted individuals and their counsel to determine whether a conviction should be vacated or modified where there is no longer confidence in the outcome. The arrests occurred between 2001 and 2016. More than half of the sentences resulted in fines or incarceration. The officers – all of whom played a material role in these conviction – are no longer on the force.
Photo: Getty
Tagged: District Attorney Alvin Bragg, entertainment blog, manhattan, music blog, NEWS, Newsletter, NYPD, wrongful conviction