Photo Courtesy of WROC TV
The New York Times reported that 15 jurors voted in favor of not charging the three officers involved in the case of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died under police custody in March 2020.
Fifteen of the jurors voted against indicting the officers of the Rochester Police Department with criminally negligent homicide, and five voted in favor.
According to The Grio, New York Attorney General Letitia James released transcripts of the grand jury proceedings on Friday. This happened to be the first time in the history of the state that the details of a police-involved death case have been public.
Transcript proceedings were released as a product of attention being focused on two other cases where officers stand accused of killing Black men in their custody.
James said, “This nation has a long and painful history of injustice, and every day, we are working to create a fairer and more equal system. Our efforts to balance the scales of justice and ensure accountability can only go so far in the absence of transparency.”
“We took the unprecedented action of seeking to release the grand jury transcripts because the public deserves to know what happened in these proceedings. As I have throughout my career, I will continue to use every tool at my disposal to shine a light in the corners of our system that have been hidden for too long.”
According to Prude’s family attorney, he had “an acute, manic, psychotic episode,” which led Prude’s brother, Joe Prude, to call 911.
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CBS News reported that Prude suffocated and died after police put a hood over his head while he was naked and handcuffed with his face to the ground for longer than three minutes.
The body cam video revealed after months of being concealed, Prude is seen kneeling naked in the street while officers directed him to lay on his stomach while he was handcuffed, and Prude complied.
Prude is seen yelling, and one officer was heard mocking Prude, asking, “You don’t got AIDS, do you? You got HIV?”
Records show that before the jurors voted, they viewed the videotaped testimony of one expert witness.
After watching the video, one of the grand jurors said, “It seems once the police got involved, things went for the worse.”
“I’m picturing myself laying on my stomach with my hands behind my back and you trying to breathe. It can’t be a normal thing to do.”
Another said, “I’m disturbed a bit. I don’t know if that witness was fully informed.”
According to The New York Times, the video came to light after reportedly being concealed by city officials, who sought to frame Prude and create a narrative around his death.