All Four Officers Acquitted in Death of Diallo
By Jane Fritsch
ALBANY, Feb. 25 -- A jury today acquitted all four New York City police officers of all charges in the shooting death of Amadou Diallo.
The four defendants -- Kenneth Boss, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Sean Carroll -- were found not guilty of five possible charges in relation to Mr. Diallo's death -- two counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter, one count of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. They are also charged with reckless endangerment of bystanders.
The verdict was delivered just before 5 p.m. after deliberations that began on Wednesday.
When the jurors reconvened today, they reheard the testimony of two of the four officers charged in the case.
The jury also asked to rehear today portions of the testimony of James Fyfe, an expert witness for the defense who testified on proper police procedures and whether the defendants had followed them.
And again the jury asked the presiding judge, Justice Joseph C. Teresi of the state Supreme Court, to clarify the laws allowing the officers to claim self-defense.
As they did on Thursday, before going to the jury room to start deliberations this morning, jurors first filed into the courtroom where for the second time they heard the court stenographer read back portions of the testimony of Mr. Carroll and Mr. Mellon, both of whom fired 16 shots at Mr. Diallo. They again wanted to hear the officers' accounts of what happened from the time they got out of their car in front of Mr. Diallo's apartment building in the Bronx until the shooting ended.
Mr. Diallo, a 22-year-old West African immigrant, was killed on Feb. 4, 1999, on his Bronx doorstep. The four officers on trial for his killing were members of the police department's Street Crime Unit and were patrolling the area that night looking for a rape suspect when they spotted Mr. Diallo and approached him. Each of the officers testified that they had opened fire on Mr. Diallo because they thought he was holding a gun; it turned out to be a black wallet.
The officers fired a total of 41 shots, striking Mr. Diallo 19 times.
The jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon and since then they asked several times that certain testimony be reread and that Justice Teresi clarify some legal point.
On Thursday, they had listened again to the accounts of the other two officers on trial here -- Mr. Boss, who fired five shots at Mr. Diallo, and Mr. Murphy, who fired four times. And they asked the judge to again read them the definition of first-degree manslaughter.
And the jurors requested and heard a rereading of the testimony of Schrrie Elliott, a defense witness who said she saw the shooting and heard someone shout, "Gun!"
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Carl
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