Res. No. 10
Title
Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, S.5046, legislation relating to the prosecution of cases involving civilian deaths and injuries by law enforcement officers, and calling upon the Special Prosecutor and district attorneys to proceed with such cases with preliminary hearings instead of grand juries until the passage of S.5046.
Body
By Council Member Barron
Whereas, Recent high-profile cases of police killings of unarmed civilians, especially cases that result in non-indictments by grand juries, have focused intense attention on the grand jury process; and
Whereas, A prosecutor typically presents all felony cases to a grand jury, which, during a secret proceeding sealed to the public, returns an indictment if it decides there is "reasonable cause to believe" that the defendant committed an offense; and
Whereas, Prosecutors secure indictments from grand juries in an overwhelming majority of cases, according to data from the U.S. Department of Justice showing that grand juries returned indictments in more than 99.9 percent of the 162,000 cases brought by federal prosecutors in 2010; and
Whereas, However, there is evidence that in cases involving police killings of civilians, a very small proportion of officers are indicted; and
Whereas, Research by the Bowling Green State University found that during a seven-year period ending in 2011, 2,600 "justifiable" police homicides across the country were reported by police departments to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, when only 41 police officers over that same period were indicted on murder or manslaughter charges for shootings while on duty; and
Whereas, In New York City, from 1999 to 2014, at least 179 people were killed by on-duty officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), resulting in only three indictments and one conviction with no jail time, according to an analysis by the New York Daily...
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