LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) — Supporters of a New York City nurse accused of killing her estranged husband are once again calling for all charges against her to be dropped.
They say Manhattan’s top prosecutor is going back on his word to help her and other domestic violence survivors. They held a rally at Foley Square on Monday.
Two years after Tracy McCarter’s arrest, she still faces murder charges for allegedly killing her estranged husband during a fight in their Upper West Side home. McCarter, a nurse with no prior criminal history, claimed she was defending herself from James Murray at the time of the deadly stabbing.
“I think people just see this is really an injustice when it’s obvious she was acting in self defense,” said one rally organizer with the group Survived and Punished NY.
Several groups were at the rally Monday, sharing a petition with more than 20,000 signatures, urging the Manhattan DA to drop all charges against McCarter. The charges were made by his predecessor, but during his campaign Bragg committed to not prosecute survivors of domestic violence:
“I definitely #StandWithTracy,” he tweeted.
Despite Bragg’s public support, McCarter’s murder trial is set to start in November.
“He claims not to know how to drop charges against her because she has already been indicted,” said Angel Parker with Court Watch NYC.
In August, Bragg asked a judge to reduce the charges against the 46-year-old grandmother from murder to manslaughter, but the request was denied. Critics say that’s because the Manhattan DA’s office did not provide enough evidence.
“The dignity and wellbeing of survivors is at the center of the Office’s work,” a spokesperson for Bragg said. “Because this case is open and pending, we will have to decline to comment.”
Rally organizers called for more from Bragg.
“We have seen that DA Bragg most recently dropped the charge before indictment against the bodega worker. So we know there are instances in which the office, when it’s politically convenient for them, really works hard to ensure someone is not prosecuted,” said a rally organizer.
McCarter was released from the Rikers jail facility and remains on house arrest.
“I have hope, but I don’t really have trust in the system. My whole family got really excited when he tweeted. We thought a light at the end of the tunnel was there and then they just took it away,” said her son Justin McCarter.
