In NY State criminally
negligent homicide is defined as:
N.Y. PEN. LAW § 125.10 : NY Code - Section 125.10: Criminally negligent homicide
A person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide when, with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person. Criminally negligent homicide is a class E felony.
What is
negligence under NY State law?
4. "Criminal negligence." A person acts with criminal negligence with
respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining
an offense when he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable
risk that such result will occur or that such circumstance exists. The
risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to perceive it
constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a
reasonable person would observe in the situation. [My underlines]
Given that NYPD agents (police) are under instructions that the use of chokeholds is banned and that officer Pantaleo knew of such a ban and decided to employ such a chokehold
anyway. As we see above "criminal negligence" includes a failure to perceive risk (death or other physical ailments) and it is clear that Pantaleo "deviated" from standard of care that a reasonable person (all NYPD officers who have received notice about chokeholds) would observe.
That's one point. The second point is that the medical examiner said that Garner died due in part to compression of his chest. So after employing a banned chokehold, they then sat on him. However, once Garner declared that he could not breath, the officers continued to restrict air to Garner by pressing his face to the ground.
What jury instruction did the grand jury receive under which they didn't find probable cause for criminally negligent homicide?
