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Mort de Amadou Diallo à New York City

Michael Cooper
Setting a Schedule Is the Next Legal Step

New York Times — April 2, 1999

Now that the four police officers charged with killing Amadou Diallo have been arraigned, the next step in the legal process will come at the end of the month, when their lawyers and Bronx prosecutors are to appear before a judge to set a schedule for the pretrial proceedings.

That meeting is set for April 30 at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, before Acting Justice Patricia Anne Williams.

Defense lawyers will be given a timetable in which to make their motions, or requests to the court. Prosecutors will be given deadlines to respond to those motions. If the matters are likely to be contested, the judge might set dates for hearings.

Marvyn M. Kornberg, the lawyer representing Officer Sean Carroll, said yesterday that in addition to standard motions like those for discovery – in which lawyers ask prosecutors to hand over the information they have collected – he expected defense lawyers to ask the judge to review the grand jury minutes to decide whether the indictments were supported by the evidence. A request for a change of venue is also possible, he said.

Kornberg also said he plans to ask the court to review grand jury attendance records to make sure that a quorum was present each day, and that the grand jurors who voted to indict the officers were present to hear all the evidence presented.

« If they weren't present, or there wasn't a quorum, these indictments may be dismissed on motions, » Kornberg said.

After the initial motions, other issues may arise, including whether any of the defendants ask for separate trials and whether the officers waive their right to a jury trial. Police officers in criminal trials have often asked for a judge to decide their case, fearing that juries would be unsympathetic.