Inside the Secretive Legal Process That Can Shield Police From Charges

Grand jury minutes in the investigation into Daniel Prude’s death reveal the many ways the criminal justice system struggles when prosecuting the police.

Her voice heavy with emotion, Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, stepped onto a church dais in Rochester in February to announce that a grand jury had declined to indict the police officers who were involved in the death of a Black man in their custody. “I’m disappointed — extremely disappointed,” Ms. James said. Her office had presented the jurors with what she called an extensive investigation into the death of the man, Daniel Prude, whom the police pinned face down on the pavement until he lost consciousness. “We sought a different outcome than the one the grand jury handed us today,” Ms. James said.