U.S.

Diallo Defense Team Speaks Out

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 28, 2000 / 9:58 AM EST / CBS

The acquittal of four white New York City police officers in the shooting death of unarmed black immigrant Amadou Diallo has touched off vocal reactions not only in New York, but across the nation. Last week, the four officers were found not guilty of murder and lesser charges.

Bennett Epstein and John Patten are the attorneys for officer Sean Carroll. Steven Brounstein is the attorney for officer Kenneth Boss. The three men spoke with Early Show Anchor Julie Chen.

"I believe the acquittal came from the fact that there really was no crime committed by these officers," Patten said. "I know there was a death, and that's a very sad thing, but there was justification for the officers' actions. That played out in the courtroom and the jury accepted that as a defense."

Did any of the attorneys think that the jury would find some of the officers guilty on lesser charges - for example, reckless endangerment or criminally negligent homicide?

"No, we all opened up this way and indicated to them we thought what happened was a tragic accident, a mistake and pursued that line throughout the entire trial and the jury accepted that version which was the true version," Patten said.

Some jurors have come forward and some have said they were not happy with the verdict, but it was clear this is what they had to do. What does that tell the defense teams?

"Juries base their verdicts on evidence or lack thereof. There was lack of evidence that a crime was committed. They were unhappy that this man died and all of us felt the same way. But the result is that there was no crime committed," Epstein said.

Epstein said he thought the prosecution teams did a good job, considering the circumstances of the case.

"I thought they did a good job and worked hard and I thought they tried the best with what they had," he said. "But as I said, if it's not there, it's not there."

In New York this past weekend a lot of people were shocked and outraged by the not guilty verdicts on all counts. How do they explain that?

"I would think that there is this sense that something went terribly wrong there, and the young man died. I mean, you just can't overlook that fact. And they came to the courts to seek some type of justice, and they have justice," Brounstein said. "It's not exactly what they want, but our system worked. That was a very fair trial up there."

Now that the officers have been acquitted, who is, if anyone, responsible for Diallo's death?

"Well, they're responsible, but not in a criminal way," Brounstein said. "There is a certain level of responsibility."

But the attorneys say that nobody is criminally responsible.

"I would have to agree," Epstein said. "What was probably overlooked by the public is the fact that the police officers' testimony about what they saw and what happened was (supported) in very many ways by civilian witnesse. For example, a civilian witness testified that Mr. Diallo was acting suspiciously in the vestibule, that the witness himself was nervous based upon Mr. Diallo's peeking in and out of the vestibule and thought something was amiss. That's exactly what officer Carroll testified occurred when he came driving by."

When Epstein's client, officer Carroll, was on the stand, he had quite an emotional day of testimony. Jurors saw a human side to the officer. Some people may argue that it was not genuine. Some think it was very genuine.

"Let me address the issue of the genuineness of his crying. Sean could not talk of this thing without crying. He cried the night of the incident," Epstein said. "He cried up in court and any time he's had to relate the story, he's cried. And that's very genuine."

What's the next step for their clients?

"Getting a life together. This has been a tremendous burden and they will have to deal with and feel grief, and now they have to put their lives together," Patten said.