Bronx DA Slow To Drop Open Marijuana Cases After Legalization, Public Defenders Say
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Marijuana was legalized more than a month ago, yet some New Yorkers still have open cases or warrants related to marijuana charges that leave them vulnerable to arrest and other involvement with the justice system.
Each district attorney’s office in the five boroughs has its own process for dismissing pending marijuana charges in light of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, which was signed into state law on March 31st and it seems some are moving quicker than others.
The Bronx Defenders sent a letter to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office on April 20th three weeks after the law was passed urging her to begin acting in accordance with the law. The letter estimated there were “hundreds” of pending cases in the Bronx in which the most serious charges were criminal sale or possession of an amount of marijuana that’s now legal or reduced to a violation unde
2 men charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy in New York
Two men were charged Thursday in the connection with the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy in New York City last year, according to a news release from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The baby, identified as Davell Gardner, was killed last July on the sidewalk in front of Brooklyn’s Raymond Bush Playground.
Less than a year after that shooting, Dashawn Austin, 25, and Akeem Artis, 24, were arrested and charged in connection with the shooting and Davell’s death. Both men are members of a local street gang called the Hoolies and the violence was motivated by gang rivalry and retaliation, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office.
Suspect nabbed in stray bullet slay of 1-year-old NYC boy nydailynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nydailynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
arrow The NY State Criminal Court building in lower Manhattan John Nacion/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Last month, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced they were moving to dismiss nearly two hundred convictions involving Joseph Franco, a veteran narcotics detective who was indicted for lying under oath in 2019. Now, a coalition of eleven wrongful conviction and public defender organizations are challenging the validity of hundreds of other convictions going back decades.
In a letter sent to all five borough District Attorneys and New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutors on Friday, the coalition identified twenty-two additional NYPD officers whose misconduct, they assert, merits the dismissal of all convictions in which they played an essential role.
Brooklyn Mother Baffled by Lack of Punishment for Cop Who Killed Her Son thecity.nyc - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thecity.nyc Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.