District Attorneys’ Statement on Extradition of Manhattan Murder Suspect

District Attorneys’ Statement on Extradition of Manhattan Murder Suspect

DISTRICT ATTORNEYS’ STATEMENT ON EXTRADITION OF

MANHATTAN MURDER SUSPECT

We are the District Attorneys for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, representing 6.8 million people in New York City.

We have facilitated countless domestic interstate extraditions. These efforts are largely coordinated by Governors’ offices, not prosecutors. In our thirty years of collective experience as District Attorneys, we have never seen a fellow prosecutor refuse an extradition request via a press conference, especially in a matter involving a murder. Making a spectacle of this simple request defies our longstanding practice to place justice and accountability above politics.

We do not have access to all of the specific facts and evidence in these cases. In fact, no one other than the Manhattan D.A.’s Office, the NYPD, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office does, and that information should drive  the extradition process. Extradition is essential to the interest of justice in our country and to utilize it as a political weapon distorts that interest.  A patent and public refusal to extradite a defendant to New York before the Offices engage on the merits, and without considering the victims and survivors in each case, is beneath our profession and is something we seek to avoid as District Attorneys.

Counter to the false narrative about New York City, overall index crime is down, and we will continue our tireless efforts with law enforcement partners to further reduce crime and pursue the safest New York City possible.