I sat with a prosecutor and asked her to consider something. The facts of the case were known. A couple of guys had come to blows. A thousand times every day, men put hands on each other but the police aren’t called. However, in my client’s case the cops were called. It wasn’t justice that my guy was being charged. “Justice” was a tagline etched on the DA’s door and I asked if this was “justice”. She smirked. I knew that she didn’t care that my client should not have been charged. She wasn’t interested in “justice”. Taking the case to trial wasn’t “justice”. Yes, there was a fist fight, but the men involved were both drunk and no one was hurt. Not really. The girlfriend of the “other guy” was “hurt” because she got in the way. She had a bruise on her arm. That was it. The real reason the case was going to trial was because the woman had been called a “cunt” by my client. Had that word not been lobbed at her, almost certainly my client would not have been charged.
Justice would not be served taking it to trial. In any event I was able to delay the trial to the last day it could be tried. The assigning judge recognized the case as bullshit and asked the ADA why our case was cluttering her calendar. The ADA went back upstairs, and the case was dismissed. That was justice.
In counties across the country there are cases that should never be brought. Kamala Harris was infamous for charging people for possession of marijuana and prosecuting parents for truant children.
In New York County which included Manhatton, the citizens elected a goon named Alvin Bragg as District Attorney. His election followed the anointment of George Floyd to sainthood. His election was of no surprise. His platform was twofold.
Get Donald Trump and Criminal Justice Reform (aka Restorative Justice).
Neither of those objectives have anything to do with justice. Donald Trump was indicted on ridiculous charges and convicted because Bragg and a partisan trial judge controlled the justice system. I have no doubt that that case will eventually die on appeal, or it will be dismissed.
During his tenure Bragg has been infamous for leniency based on social-economic status, and particularly race. Mostly race. If a criminal was a black and a repeat offender, it was never their fault, it was the fault of society. Criminals could commit crimes and be out without bail – free to commit more crimes. It was reformative justice.
Last year a deranged street guy named Jordan Neely hopped on the F train and started to harass paying passengers. Neely threatened women and then threatened everyone in the subway car. “SOMEONE IS GONNA DIE!” said the dug addicted derelict. One woman with a 5-year-old shielded her son fearing the that her son would be the target.
Daniel Penny stepped into the breach. He stopped Neely by holding him in a headlock. There was another passenger who helped keep Neary from hurting anyone. That “helper” was a black man. Neely died – not because of Penny’s hold but because of Neely’s life choices. Those choices included a lifetime of drug use. Neely was breathing when the cops arrived. Penny clearly didn’t kill him. But facts didn’t matter to Alvin Bragg. Neely was black. So by default, he was a victim. Penny is white. So by default, he was the oppressor. Penny was charged with killing Neely.
The trial was a farce. The medical examiner claimed that just by watching a cellphone video she could tell that Penny had killed Neely. That’s about as scientific as claiming a woman accused of witchcraft must drown to prove she isn’t a witch.
It should never have gone to trial. Fortunately, the credible evidence presented during trial showed actual innocence not just enough for reasonable doubt. Penny was not responsible for Neely’s death, but Bragg had a white guy to railroad, and justice was not going to get in his way. And, Bragg had a New York jury. Fortunately, that New York jury saw through Braggs’ nonsense and acquitted Penny even after the judge dismissed the more severe manslaughter charge. The trial judge hoped that the jury would ignore his instructions and convict Penny on the criminal negligence charge.
Jonathan Turley opined that Bragg could still pursue the dismissed manslaughter count for a second bite of the apple. He is wrong. Bragg could “try” but such an attempt would die on the rocks, if not at the trial level – certainly on appeal. There is zero chance that it would survive a double jeopardy challenge.
BLM agitators and New York’s social justice clowns came out from under their rocks to cry that justice had not been served and, of course, to cry RACIST! A New York City Council member named Tiffany Caban jumped on the “racist” bandwagon. She claimed that the acquittal of Penny was because Penny was white and Penny had “lynched” Neely. I replied to her libelous claim – with a hope the Penny sues her for libel. Caban was raked so badly and often that she made her account “private”
I am hopeful the worm has turned nationally, and “social justice” goons like Bragg will no longer get their way.
Reasonable people are no longer cowed. Penny’s case may have been a watershed.