4
Vs 1: 41 shots
What A Shameles Thing People!!!
 
Officers cleared in Diallo shooting
Jury finds New York policemen not guilty.
New York City police officer Edward McMellon embraces his attorney moments
after being found not guilty in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Friday, in
Albany, N.Y.
By Alex Cukan
APBNEWS.COM
ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 25 — The four white police officers on trial for the
shooting death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, were found not guilty on
all charges in Albany, N.Y., on Friday. THE JURY of four black women, one white woman and
seven white men delivered its verdicts on the third day of deliberations. The four
defendants, Kenneth Boss, 28; Richard Murphy, 27; Carroll, 37; and McMellon, 27, were all
charged with two counts each of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree
reckless endangerment. They faced 25 years to life if convicted of the most serious
charges.
The reading of the verdicts was delayed so that
Albany County police could increase security around the courthouse for protests and
demonstrations. The trial was moved to Albany from the Bronx because of
intense publicity and protests. Boss, whose verdict was read first, broke down briefly
when the last
count of reckless endangerment was announced to be not guilty. Carroll, McMellon and
Murphy stood stoically as the charges were read.
The trial lasted more than three weeks and included
nine days of testimony, 12 witnesses for the prosecution, 19 witnesses for the defense and
54 exhibits. Perhaps the most important part was the hearing Feb. 17 when the defense
lawyers fought and won to have three components of justification be considered by the
jury. If the jury found justification, more commonly known as self-defense, they were
instructed to find the defendant not guilty and deliberations on that defendant would
cease.
“Even if the defendant is otherwise guilty, if
he acted in self-defense, you must find him not guilty,” Teresi had instructed the
jury. The judge also told jurors that state law allows for police officers to approach
citizens in the street and to ask a person’s identification and purpose for being in
the area, commonly known as “stop and frisk,” but that there must be a
reasonable suspicion.
The prosecution claimed the four white officers did
not identify themselves as police, and when they left their car, they made a conscious
decision to shoot Diallo, who was black, as he stood just outside his Bronx
apartment vestibule at about 12:40 a.m. Feb. 4, 1999. The prosecution also claimed there
was enough light for the officers to see that Diallo was unarmed and holding a wallet in
his hand. The defense claimed the officers patrolling the area spotted Diallo suspiciously
peering up and down Wheeler Avenue, and that he may have been a serial rapist or a lookout
for a robbery.
The officers claimed they identified themselves and
asked to talk to Diallo, but that he turned away and tried to enter the apartment
building. The officers said they all thought Diallo was holding a gun. All said
they shot at Diallo because they feared McMellon, who had fallen backward from the stairs
in front of the building, had been shot. They said they believed they were going to be
shot by Diallo.
Carroll, an officer with the New York Police
Department for six years, was the key witness for the defense. He gave the first and most
detailed testimony of what happened the winter night Diallo was shot and why
he thought the 22-year-old street vender acted suspiciously. He was the first officer to
think Diallo was pulling a weapon from his pocket and shouted “gun.” He fired at
Diallo 16 times. Carroll was the most emotional of the witnesses, breaking down and crying
several times as he recounted Diallo’s final moments. The other defendants testified
seriously and solemnly.
Even if all four officers are acquitted on all 24
state charges, they still face federal charges whether they are found innocent of guilty.
If convicted, they could face the death penalty. The four also face a civil lawsuit by the
Diallo family. “No matter what happens in the criminal and civil proceedings, the
officers will never be street cops again. If they stay with the department, they’ll
be doing paperwork,” a fellow officer told APBnews.com.
“This has really aged them — all look over
40 and three haven’t hit 30 yet,” said another officer, who traveled to Albany
to support the defendants at trial. “No matter what happens in court, they have to
live
with killing a man, and they’ll probably never get over that.”
Black Radical Congress (BRC)
P.O. Box 490365
Atlanta, GA 30349
(404) 768-2529
blackradicalcongress@email.com
http://www.blackradicalcongress.org
For Immediate Release
February 28, 2000
Contact: Bilal Ali, 323-733-2107, 626-716-7959
Ashaki Binta, 404-768-8801, 770-331-5818
The Black Radical Congress Condemns the Acquittal of Four Police Officers in the Murder of Amadou Diallo
The acquittal of four police officers in the vicious and inhumane murder of African immigrant Amadou
Diallo on February 25th must be vigorously condemned, and exposed as a license for continued police
terror in Black and poor communities across this country. Brother Diallo was only 22 years old,
a native of Guinea, West Africa.
The Black Radical Congress calls on all BRC Local Organizing Committees, grassroots and community
organizations, social justice organizations, unions and workers rights groups, the Black press and
community and political activists world-wide to issue press statements, pass leaflets, speak-out,
organize demonstrations, meetings and actions to condemn and expose the unjust acquittals.
We should join and/or send letters of support for the ongoing
demonstrations occurring at this moment in New York to protest the unjust verdict.
The Diallo murder and the acquittal of the four officers who shot more than 40 times at Brother Diallo,
massacring him with 19 bullets, demonstrates to the world community that Black life, poor life, and the
innocent are worthless and expendable in U.S. society.
Racist police terror against the Black community has clearly been on the rise in the last decades of the
20th century and ominously pushes these historic acts of state condoned racist violence and terror against our
community into the 21st century.
The conditions of oppression and the historic and systemic injustices facing the African American people,
forces us to see that only an organized political movement for liberation can end the brutality of the so-called
judicial system, the courts, and U.S. society in general.
Court testimony placed in the record by the prosecutors of the four officers suggested a police cover-
up, in that Diallo next door neighbor Ida Vincent testified overhearing statements below her window just
after hearing the gun shots saying, "Ok, Ok. We're just going to say this." Moreover, there was also testimony
that the young immigrant may have been shot while lying on the ground. This according to New York City
medical examiner Dr. Joseph Cohen, who performed the autopsy and who testified in the trial
.Defense attorneys for the officers provided "expert" testimony against the medical examiners findings.
The Diallo murder must be placed in the context of the wider struggle in the United States against
all forms of racist acts of violence and police state terror. In Los Angeles, as the Diallo Case was
being tried, more than 70 current and former police officers have been placed under investigation
for corruption in which it has been exposed that a conspiracy exists within the LAPD for planting
evidence, shooting unarmed and innocent people, wrongful convictions, drug trafficking, and
police cover-ups. One of the officers being investigated, Rafael Perez, testified in the investigation
that "officers in the department's Rampart Division actually gave each other awards after
being involved in shooting unarmed and innocent people."
Recently, the state of Illinois imposed a moratorium on the state's death penalty after it was
revealed that 13 prisoners condemned to death and facing execution were actually innocent.
Mumia Abu Jamal remains incarcerated and facing death as a result of the U.S. system
of injustice.
Millions of Black and other people of color and the poor languish in the jails and prisons
across America while the innocent are harassed, beaten, and murdered on the streets.
We must build a national fight back and a national movement to stem the tide of brutality
against our communities.
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