Ken Thompson - Strengthening Trust in the Criminal Justice System: Talks at GS Session Highlights

Office Scope and Mandate

• The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office is the largest in New York City and the third largest nationally, employing nearly 1,200 staff members including over 500 prosecutors.
• The office processes approximately 100,000 cases annually while operating under a dual mandate to ensure public safety and correct systemic inequities.
• The District Attorney asserts that the current criminal justice system discriminates against the poor across all races, noting that financial status often influences case outcomes.

Conviction Review Unit Initiatives

• The unit was established to address wrongful convictions, having reviewed approximately 50 cases since its inception.
• Out of the reviewed cases, the office concluded that 17 men were wrongfully convicted of serious crimes, including murder, and have since been exonerated.
• The majority of reviewed cases maintained their original convictions, with the unit determining no grounds existed to disturb them.

"Begin Again" Program for Warrants

• The program targets the estimated one million open warrants in New York City, primarily stemming from low-level, non-violent quality-of-life offenses.
• Specific offenses addressed include riding bicycles on sidewalks, walking dogs without leashes, and littering.
• The initiative eliminates geographic barriers by holding mobile court sessions in churches without requiring the respondent to reside in Brooklyn.
• Thousands of individuals have attended three mobile court events to have warrants vacated and summons resolved, removing the need for travel to Manhattan's 346 Broadway location.

Gun Violence and Smuggling Interventions

• The District Attorney's office reports that 90% of firearms recovered at crime scenes in New York originate from out-of-state sources.
• Long-term joint investigations with the NYPD are underway to identify and prosecute gun smugglers transporting weapons from states with laxer regulations, such as Indiana, into New York.
• The office cites a specific trend in Chicago where, despite strict state laws, 120 people were shot within the first 10 days of 2016 due to guns smuggled from neighboring states.

Fast-Track Gun Court

• A dedicated multi-judge gun court has been implemented to accelerate the resolution of gun possession cases, moving beyond the previous single-judge model.
• The primary objective is to reduce case resolution times from potentially one year to a much shorter duration to prevent suspects from remaining in the community while awaiting trial.
• While the program originated in Brooklyn, the plan explicitly includes expanding the fast-track court model to all other boroughs of New York City.