(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City led by District Attorney Darcel Clark, has had the worst conviction and dismissal in almost all major crime categories in the past five years.
According to a Saturday report by the New York Post, data from the Division of the Criminal Justice Services showed that the 61-year-old DA, a Democrat, declined to arrest suspects of attempted murder and sex assault crimes more than all New York City-based prosecutors over the last five years. She also refused to prosecute over 100 attempted murder crimes, over 170 rapes and 51 sex-abuse arrests of differing degrees during that time.
“Clark has the ignominious distinction of being the prosecutor with the lowest conviction rate for first and second-degree murder arrests, as well as attempted murder, since 2018, according to state data on closed cases,” the Post reported. “Clark’s office has secured guilty verdicts in just 60% of murder arrests by law enforcement, compared to 62% in Brooklyn, 66% in both Queens and Staten Island, and 76% in Manhattan, according to the data.”
Clark “was only able to secure convictions in 39% of attempted murder arrests since 2018 that have so far been closed, compared to 54% in Brooklyn, 61% in Manhattan and Queens, and 65% in Staten Island, the data,” the scathing reporting continued.
“I’ve had a number of cases dismissed in Bronx County based on a confluence of events, none of which involved the merits of the case,” criminal defense lawyer Todd Spodek said in comments to the Post. “They were dismissed based on prosecutors being unable to file certificates of compliance on time, based on prosecutors having uncooperative witnesses.”
The scathing report comes a day after New York Democrats reversed parts of their infamous 2019 criminal justice reforms after voters, upset at skyrocketing crimes, revolted against Democrats in the 2022 election. Cash bail reforms, touted by leftist Democrats as a historic change in 2019, was tighten up to allow judges to detain suspects on certain conditions.
New York City crime also gained national attention after the Republican-led U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing to highlight the dangers of woke prosecutors.
The field hearing, led by the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was announced after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg charged former President Donald Trump with felony crimes over claims the former president falsified business records related to hush payments.
Bragg, a Soros-backed prosecutor, was accused of neglecting violent crime in Manhattan while prioritizing a political vendetta against Trump. In 2021, then-candidate for DA Bragg said charging Trump was the “number one issue.”
Earlier this month Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., raised the alarm about the surge of violent crime in New York City.
“House Republicans will expose Far Left Democrats’ failed policies like failed bail reform creating a crime crisis across our great state,” Stefanik said in a Twitter post on April 16.
Clark was first elected Bronx District Attorney in 2016. She was re-elected in 2019 and is running for a third term in 2023.
