3,000 Marijuana Cases Thrown Out In Manhattan

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — A Manhattan judge on Wednesday tossed more than 3,000 marijuana cases that the borough's top prosecutor said would not benefit public safety.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. moved to vacate the 3,042 arrest warrants for marijuana possession or smoking — some of which date back to 1978 — and dismiss the underlying cases.

The move will remove the unnecessary fear of arrest for a large group of people and free up prosecutorial resources to focus on more serious cases, Vance said. The Manhattan DA's office stopped prosecuting most marijuana possession and smoking cases last month.

"We are trying to even out racial disparity and rationalize and right-size our criminal-justice efforts," Vance, a Democrat, told reporters at Manhattan Criminal Court.

Vance cast the mass dismissal as his office's latest effort to rectify longstanding racial inequities in how marijuana laws are enforced. Some 79 percent of those whose cases were thrown out are people of color, while nearly half were 25 or younger at the time of their arrest, the DA's office said.

The warrants impacted people who failed to show up in court after being previously arrested or given a desk appearance ticket for low-level marijuana possesion, Vance said.

They could still throw a wrench into those people's lives today even if they've stayed out of trouble, said Seth Steed of Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem, a legal-services group that joined Vance's motions.

"Their cars could get towed, they could lose housing — there's all kinds of collateral consequences that stem from an arrest from these old warrants," Steed said.

In granting Vance's motions, Supervising Judge Kevin McGrath gave 90 days before the cases are sealed so the court and the NYPD can update their records. Cops won't execute any of the vacated warrants in the meantime, McGrath said.

There has been a persistent racial disparity in marijuana arrests in New York City despite efforts to decriminalize the drug. Black and Hispanic people accounted for 86 percent of last year's pot arrests even though all ethnic groups have been shown to use marijuana at similar rates.

Local prosecutors and police officials have eased up on marijuana enforcement while state officials consider legalizing the drug altogether, as nine U.S. states have already done.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez launched a program last week that could erase up to 20,000 low-level marijuana convictions. And the NYPD since Sept. 1 has issued summonses to people caught lighting up in public rather than arresting them, with certain exceptions in the name of public safety.

Vance's office is examining how old marijuana convictions could currently be expunged, he said, but a state law would be the "most clean" way to address that issue. Authorities should also get ready for pot to eventually become legal, he said.

"Marijuana legislation that changes the laws, which I think is ultimately going to take place in New York, should be looked at hard now so that we can get ready for that day, and I think that day is coming," Vance said.

(Lead image: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. speaks in Manhattan Criminal Court after moving to dismiss more than 3,000 low-level marijuana cases. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)