Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Research Blogs -> New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

Legal Research

: New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

NYC Bell Shooting Case Will Be Decided Next Week

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source:Crime & Justice News

"The judge hearing New York City's Sean Bell shooting

case, in which police fired 50 shots to kill a man about

to be married, will issue his decision next Friday, says

the New York Times. The case often is compared with

the 1999 shooting in which four officers killed Amadou

Diallo in a hail of 41 bullets in the Bronx. The officers

were indicted but acquitted by an upstate jury.

A lawyer for one of the officers in the Diallo case, John

Patten, said that if the officers in the Bell case are

acquitted, the Diallo case may be a good indicator of

what could happen next.  'The department threw its

arms around the officers,' Patten said. 'The

interesting thing about Bell or Diallo, these are use-of-

force cases where the department usually gets

behind these guys. It's not like a corruption thing, or

some real stupid behavior.' In the Bell case, two

detectives are charged with manslaughter and

assault, both felonies, and all three officers are

charged with reckless endangerment, a

misdemeanor. A felony conviction would automatically

cost the men their jobs; there are several examples of

New York City police officers who lost their jobs after

acquittals."

New York Times - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0016uzC2KlQMjsdBXZc78wYD8lthk6VDPATDK8ZG-PdNaxeVLJZgildndWKu4v5wE7mYJWPCAnjnj1LcK7om9yfOkShfluWR1fwYF7gRHjqFezCGTKn9oiOjh7tV7Qe0pm9w5d2o7wWP95We88CxXki5VPtCb4779dUu_VxBaAqtyyxqUD-whSup8ydsLv42CIHScAL8mpEido=

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).