BRONX ACQUITTALS SET RECORD

High Arrest Rate, Tense Relations Mark Borough; 'Let the Guy Walk'

Bronx jurors in felony cases found defendants guilty only 43% of the
time last year, the lowest conviction rate in New York City since the
state began tracking such data 22 years ago.

The Bronx stands in stark contrast to the other boroughs, all of
which had felony conviction rates of 70% or higher last year,
according to the New York State Unified Court System, which tracks
the data. For the first two months of 2010, the latest data
available, the Bronx conviction rate was 48%. High arrest rates may
have contributed to the low conviction rate.

In closing arguments of a felony drug trial last week, Bronx defense
attorney Seann Riley hammered home a message he'd been suggesting to
the jury all along: You can't trust the police.

"In this case, they have a motive to lie," said Mr. Riley, who argued
that an undercover officer had wrongly identified his client as a
drug seller. "To them, getting a guilty verdict would mean they've
done a good job. An acquittal would mean they didn't do a good job."
His client was acquitted.

Anthony Schepis, an executive assistant district attorney for Bronx
County, defended the district attorney's conviction rate numbers,
saying that felony jury trials account for only a small proportion of
the office's cases. He added that the conviction rate is near 90%
when plea deals are factored in. Mr. Schepis said the district
attorney's office didn't view jurors in the Bronx as unfair.

"If others want to characterize it differently, that's fine," Mr.
Schepis said. "But we're not going to do that."

"We know jurors here will make us prove our cases beyond a reasonable
doubt," he said.

The Bronx-which has been the location of notorious cases such as the
police shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999 and Larry Davis's shootout
with police in 1986-has seen tensions between the police and the
community run high over time. Some say those tensions have
contributed to the low conviction rate.

"There's no doubt that with [conviction rate] numbers like that
you've got some Bronx juries that say 'guilty' mentally, but let the
guy walk anyway," said Eugene O'Donnell, a lecturer at the John Jay
College of Criminal Justice and former prosecutor in the Brooklyn
District Attorney's office.

"The Bronx has a healthy mistrust for the police and that has a part
in why there are so many acquittals," says defense attorney Ron Kuby,
who has represented many Bronx defendants, including Mr. Davis. "It
has an impact because so many cases in the Bronx are drug-related and
depend almost exclusively on testimony from police officers."

Walking out of the Bronx County Hall of Justice after an acquittal
last month, juror Fredina Renee, 23 years old, said her group's
not-guilty verdicts were based on scant evidence, not a mistrust of
law-enforcement officials. "It wasn't really about the police's word
in the case-it was about the evidence," she said. "I think right away
[in deliberations] everyone kind of thought there needed to be more
proof than there was."

The crime rate in the Bronx and the city alike has fallen in the past
decade. The Bronx saw 113 homicides last year, down more than 40%
from 2001; citywide, murders are down more 27%, from 641 in 2001.
Violent crimes in the Bronx are down about 27% since 2001, and are
down 34% citywide. Still, the Bronx has the highest adult arrest rate
of the five boroughs. The adult arrest rate in the Bronx last year,
88.1 arrests for every 1,000 residents, was far higher than that of
the next closest borough, Manhattan, at 64.6 for every 1,000
residents. The number of adult arrests in the Bronx has grown 36%
since 2001, outpacing other boroughs. More than 100,000 arrests were
made in the borough last year.

Mr. O'Donnell said the high arrest rate contributes to the high level
of acquittals: "If the DA put its foot down, the arrest rates might
lower, and the conviction rate might be higher."

Chief police spokesman Paul Browne defended the arrests in the
borough, saying, "Most of them are so strong that people decide not
to go to trial." A Bronx native himself, Mr. Browne said that the
policing of the borough over the past few years has made the Bronx
safer, and that relations between the community and the police have
"never been better."

Aamir Thompson, 33, Mr. Riley's client who was acquitted last week,
said divisions between the community and the police grow each time
someone is acquitted. He lost his job in building security in 2008
after being charged with selling drugs to an undercover officer.
"That's exactly why they can't be trusted," he said. "They arrest
people and they don't have enough evidence to prove things."