Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Cuomo to Appoint Special Prosecutor for Killings by Police

Video
bars
0:00/0:50
-0:00

transcript

Cuomo Establishes Special Prosecutor

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order naming the state attorney general as a special prosecutor for civilian deaths by the police.

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York: “So the Attorney General will be standing prosecutor to handle any case where a law-enforcement officer kills an unarmed civilian or kills a civilian and there is a question as to whether or not the civilian is armed and dangerous.” 3. Wide, press conference 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York: “This situation that we’re addressing is a crisis. It’s a crisis in the state and it’s a crisis nationwide. It is a crisis of confidence in the criminal justice system.” 5. Wide, press conference: 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York: “I know that this law and this executive order will go along way to doing exactly what we needed to do which is start to restore the trust so people feel that criminal justice and public safety works for everyone in this city and in this state, black, white, rich, poor. Justice is to be colorblind.” 7. Wide, press conference 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Eric Schneiderman, New York State Attorney General: “Ladies and gentlemen today with the governor’s order New York takes a very important step forward in this process of ensuring that our system of justice does provide equal justice under law.”

Video player loading
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order naming the state attorney general as a special prosecutor for civilian deaths by the police.CreditCredit...Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

With pressure mounting from families whose loved ones have died at the hands of a police officer, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday that he was preparing to issue an executive order naming the state attorney general as a special prosecutor for police-related civilian deaths.

The governor called the order “a major step forward” and stressed his hope that independent investigations would help restore public faith.

“A criminal justice system doesn’t work without trust,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We will be the first state in the country to acknowledge the problem and say we’re going to create an independent prosecutor who does not have that kind of connection with the organized police departments.”

He said that he thought he had assuaged New Yorkers calling for greater oversight of police-related deaths when he announced last month that he was directing Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman to investigate all such cases over the next year. The governor had pushed for legislation to create an independent monitor to review cases in which unarmed people were killed by officers. But he failed to reach an agreement with legislators before the session ended. As a result, the governor said, he was appointing Mr. Schneiderman by executive action.

Calls for police oversight have surged since a chokehold by a police officer led to the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, on Staten Island in 2014. Despite video showing the chokehold, which is not allowed under police rules, and a medical examiner’s labeling of Mr. Garner’s death as a homicide, a grand jury declined to indict the officer. Responding to a national outcry over the failure to indict, Mr. Cuomo said last year that he would order a thorough review of the criminal justice system.

Shortly after the grand jury’s decision in December, the attorney general asked the governor to grant his office special powers to investigate and prosecute police-related civilian deaths. Mr. Cuomo, who is said to have an often discordant relationship with Mr. Schneiderman, initially responded with hesitation.

The governor’s announcement on Tuesday came nearly one year after Mr. Garner’s death, and one day after Gwen Carr, Mr. Garner’s mother, and Constance Malcolm, whose unarmed son, Ramarley Graham, was killed by a New York police officer in 2012, together published an opinion article in The Daily News castigating the governor for “backtracking” on aspects of his plan to appoint a special prosecutor. The governor met in April with relatives of people killed by the police and promised outside oversight.

Image
Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, on Tuesday.Credit...Mark Kauzlarich/The New York Times

The families have urged that the governor’s executive order extend beyond the proposed one-year time frame. They have also sought to have the special prosecutor examine all police-related civilian deaths, rather than only those in which the victim was unarmed, as that issue is often a source of conflict.

The governor has said that he plans to renew the order after one year, which he said was the limit for an executive order, but he has not specified that the order would include all police-related civilian deaths.

“The special prosecutor will kick in for cases where a law enforcement officer in the conduct of their duty kills an unarmed person, or a person where there is a significant question if the person was armed and dangerous,” the governor told reporters on Tuesday.

Later on Tuesday, at a news conference outside Mr. Cuomo’s office in Midtown Manhattan, Ms. Carr and other family members of people killed by New York police officers expressed their appreciation for the governor’s order along with their insistence that it be carried out in full strength.

“Thank you, Governor Cuomo,” Ms. Carr said, clutching a framed photograph her son. “Do the right thing for us.”

While families and advocates have called for greater police oversight, the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, dismissed the governor’s action as “unnecessary” and pandering to public pressure.

“Given the many levels of oversight that already exists, both internally in the N.Y.P.D. and externally in many forms, the appointment of a special prosecutor is unnecessary,” the union’s president, Patrick J. Lynch, said. “The rules of law apply regardless of who is investigating a case, but our concern is that there will be pressure on a special prosecutor to indict an officer for the sake of public perception, and that does not serve the ends of justice.”

Mr. Cuomo met again late Tuesday afternoon at his Midtown office with families, who vow to be vigilant about making sure the governor addressed their concerns. The governor’s spokeswoman, Melissa DeRosa, described the meeting as “productive” and said Mr. Cuomo looked forward “to continuing the conversation.”

“We are in the process of finalizing the executive order,” she added, “and the governor looks forward to signing it soon.”

Thomas Kaplan contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Cuomo to Name Prosecutor to Examine Police Killings. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT