People celebrating @NewYorkStateAG's proposed legislation that supposedly makes it easier to prosecute cops, should remember James presented the case against the cops who killed Daniel Prude to a grand jury, but also called an expert who testified that the killing was justified. 
In that case, AG James claimed that she presented the strongest possible case to the grand jury in an attempt to indict the police officers, but she called Dr. Gary Vilke as the state's expert witness and he concluded that the cops were not responsible for Mr. Prude's death.
He concluded that Mr. Prude died due to "excited delirium." This is a diagnosis that is not recognized by the American Medical Association or American Psychiatric Association and is used to justify police violence against Black and Brown people. brookings.edu/blog/how-we-ri…
That Dr. Vilke would testify this was was not a surprise. Gary Vilke has only ever testified for law enforcement and concluded that they acted lawfully. 9news.com/article/news/i…
If the attorney general had wanted to get an indictment in that case she would have gotten one.
Just as nearly any prosecutor who wants to get an indictment now in a police killing case can get one if they present a strong case to a grand jury. They choose not to do that.
Remember she had the video and was responsible for the investigation since April of last year, but the video was not released until October. 13wham.com/news/local/thi…
So her office was implicated in the cover up of the case as much as local officials.
This new legislation, like most criminal justice reform legislation, is really just theater. Smoke and mirrors. Murder is already illegal. Police who kill people can be prosecuted. Don't buy the hype.
Here are the transcripts. amsterdamnews.com/news/2021/apr/…
The top charge she presented was criminally negligent homicide. That's a class e felony with a minimum sentence of PROBATION and a maximum sentence of 4 years in prison.
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Presenting the strongest possible case to the grand jury would have been presenting a murder charge.
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