CITY WIRE: THE BLOG
Appeals Court Rejects Manhattan DA’s Bid to Undo Ruling on 1990 Murder
Jarrett Murphy |
Prosecutors now must decide whether or not to appeal that ruling.
Prosecutors now must decide whether or not to appeal that ruling.
Hoping to make gun charges result in convictions earlier and more often, New York City is pursuing another experiment with specialized gun courts. But making illegal weapons charges stick is harder than it sounds.
Overlapping authority among state and city agencies might be one of the reasons that obstacles persist for the estimated 99,000 New Yorkers who use wheelchairs, as well as other people with disabilities.
A move by the state courts to review bail decisions comes too late in the process to make a difference, defense attorneys report.
Some want Rikers to close altogether. The mayor says that’s not a realistic goal. But a Manhattan Assemblyman says the de Blasio administration should at least move pre-trail detainees off the island.
The program would handle gun cases to serve one basic underlying purpose: to speed up gun convictions. Many, however, might not equate “fast tracking” with justice or due process.
City Limits contacted all 51 members of the City Council, the five borough presidents and the three citywide officials to ask whether they support closing Rikers.
Rikers’ physical reality, many agree, is a crucial part of its problem.
Last year, nearly half went to people from China.
Brooklyn Independent Media’s Bk Live looks at the mayor’s plan to create an alternative system that will use supervision rather than money to get people to come to court.