http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/nyregion/prosecutor-wont-seek-prison-for-peter-liang-ex-officer-convicted-in-killing.html?_r=0

Prosecutor Won’t Seek Prison for Peter Liang, Ex-Officer Convicted in Killing

The
 Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced on Wednesday that it 
would not seek prison time for the former New York City police officer convicted last month in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man in a housing project in East New York.
In
 a statement, the district attorney, Ken Thompson, said the case was 
about “justice and not about revenge,” and recommended that the former 
officer, Peter Liang, receive five years of probation, including six 
months of home confinement, when he faces sentencing next month.
“Mr.
 Liang has no prior criminal history and poses no future threat to 
public safety,” Mr. Thompson’s statement said. “Because his 
incarceration is not necessary to protect the public, and due to the 
unique circumstances of this case, a prison sentence is not warranted.”
Mr.
 Liang was on patrol in a stairwell with his partner in the Louis H. 
Pink Houses on Nov. 20, 2014, when his gun fired and a ricocheting 
bullet struck and killed Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old black man who was 
visiting his girlfriend.
The
 killing of Mr. Gurley came barely four months after an another unarmed 
black man, Eric Garner, died in a confrontation with the police on 
Staten Island, and the two deaths pulled New York into a national debate
 over race and the criminal justice system.

    

    
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A
 little more than more than a year after Mr. Gurley’s death, a state 
grand jury indicted Mr. Liang on charges that included manslaughter. He 
was convicted on Feb. 11, and then fired by the Police Department.
On Wednesday, Mr. Gurley’s family denounced the prosecutors’ decision.
“We
 are outraged at District Attorney Thompson’s inadequate sentencing 
recommendation,” the family said in a statement. “Officer Liang was 
convicted of manslaughter and should serve time in prison for his crime.
 This sentencing recommendation sends the message that police officers 
who kill people should not face serious consequences.”
Mr.
 Thompson’s statement, which was accompanied by a formal sentencing 
letter, serves only as a recommendation to Justice Danny K. Chun of 
State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, who is scheduled to hand down the 
sentence in the case on April 14.
 
        
        
        

            

                
            

            

                
                                
                            

        


                

            Document: Liang Sentencing Letter        
            

In
 his sentencing letter, Mr. Thompson wrote that Mr. Liang’s actions had 
“tragic and irreparable consequences,” but he also noted that there was 
no evidence that Mr. Liang had intended to kill or even injure Mr. 
Gurley.
Scott
 Rynecki, a lawyer for Kimberly Ballinger, Mr. Gurley’s domestic 
partner, said that while Mr. Thompson’s office had been able to do what 
others rarely had — obtain the conviction of a police officer in the 
fatal shooting of an innocent man — the recommendation of no prison time
 did not diminish the “message that police are going to be held 
accountable for committing a wrongful act.”
“He’s still asking for a significant sentence,” Mr. Rynecki said of the district attorney.
Patrick
 J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the 
city’s main police union, said the case against Mr. Liang should not 
have been brought in the first place. “The reasons cited by the D.A. for
 justifying no jail time in this tragedy are the very same reasons that 
the officer should not have been indicted,” Mr. Lynch said.
Edward
 Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, who had
 also disagreed with Mr. Thompson for seeking the indictment of Mr. 
Liang, the decision not to seek jail time was correct.
“Of course, Officer Liang shouldn’t be in jail,” Mr. Mullins said in a statement. “He never should have been convicted.”

    

    
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Lumumba
 Bandele, a senior organizer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education 
Fund, who attended much of the trial, said that Mr. Thompson’s decision 
left him disappointed and concerned about “the devaluation of black and 
brown lives.”
“I
 think if the shoe were on the other foot” — if a civilian had 
accidentally killed a police officer — “it would be highly unlikely we 
would having this conversation,” Mr. Bandele said.
That
 sentiment was echoed by Johnetta Elzie, a founder of Campaign Zero, an 
advocacy group affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, which 
focuses on ending police violence. “Could you imagine a sentence or 
recommendation for a regular civilian?” Ms. Elzie asked. “Or if Akai had
 shot and killed Peter? Skewed is not a strong enough word for what 
happened today.”
Ms. Elzie then added: “This is not what justice looks like.”
New
 York City police officers are rarely indicted by grand juries, let 
alone put on trial, for deaths they cause in the line of duty. The most 
recent to be convicted of a line-of-duty killing was Brian Conroy who, 
in 2005, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the fatal 
shooting of an unarmed African immigrant named Ousmane Zongo. In that 
case, a State Supreme Court judge sentenced Officer Conroy to five years
 of probation, a sentence much like Mr. Thompson’s recommendation.
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