Queens DA Election Guide: The Role Of The District Attorney

QUEENS, NY — Queens residents have an election coming up. This year they get to vote for a new district attorney, one of the most powerful positions in the criminal justice system.

So, what does a district attorney actually do, and who are the individuals vying for your vote?

Patch partnered with The Justice Collaborative, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization focused on criminal justice reform, to compile a series of election guides — plus links to additional resources for those who want to read further.

These guides will be updated during the course of the election.

GO DEEPER:

>> Patch's Guide To The Democratic Primary Candidates

>> Patch's Schedule Of Upcoming Candidate Forums

Read on to learn all you need to know about the race and what a district attorney does.

The Basics

This election will determine who succeeds Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, who began the job in 1991 and died on May 4, 2019. Brown had already announced he would not run for reelection and he had planned to resign in June due to ongoing health issues.

Chief Assistant District Attorney John M. Ryan is serving in his place until the new DA is elected.

It's an unusual year to hold an election — and it's all thanks to a New York Court of Appeals decision in 1942, the Queens Daily Eagle reported. A 1939 constitutional amendment required the election in an odd-numbered year, so the court ruled that the DA elected in 1942 should only serve a one-year term.

There are actually two elections this year: the June 25 Democratic primary and the November 5 general election. Primary elections have typically happened in September, but voting reforms passed by the state earlier this year consolidated local and federal primary elections.

Candidates can still file to run as independents until May 28.

The Democratic primary, which includes seven candidates, will most likely determine who succeeds Brown, as, historically, the region has strongly supported the party. Attorney Daniel Kogan, who has a law office in Ozone Park, is running uncontested for the Republican nomination, so there will be no primary election for that party.

Voters must be registered with the Democratic party to vote in its primary.

Learn more about when and where to vote on the NYC Board of Elections website.

What does the District Attorney do?

“District Attorney” (or DA) is the name given to the chief local prosecutor. New York City's district attorneys serve four-year terms, state law says.

The Queens DA leads a team of about 300 assistant district attorneys, who argue criminal cases on behalf of the borough. The office also includes investigators, accountants, paralegals, secretaries and clerks.

After police make an arrest, district attorneys have the power to decide if a case will be brought against that person or if they'll decline to prosecute. They and their assistant prosecutors decide what charges the accused person will face and, if the person is found guilty, recommend the parameters of the punishment that person will serve.

For example, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez has instructed his office not to charge people for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

“Prosecutors have unbelievable discretion,” Katie Schaffer told The Appeal, a nonprofit that reports on the criminal justice system. Schaffer is a New York organizer with JustLeadershipUSA, a group that supports reducing incarceration.

“The criminal code is really written like a menu of options for prosecutors.”

That's not all. Here are several more important roles prosecutors play:

• Prosecutors largely control the terms of a plea bargain: the charges, the length and type of sentence. This is significant because a vast majority of criminal cases end in plea bargains instead of going to trial.
• Prosecutors have complete access to evidence in a case and control what evidence is made available to the defense — and how quickly. (A new state law requires prosecutors to share evidence against criminal defendants within 15 days of arraignment.)
• Prosecutors also make bail recommendations to a judge. A study in New York City found a correlation between prosecutors’ bail requests and judges’ decisions. (New York recently ended the use of cash bail for nonviolent offenders.)

There are more than 2,400 elected prosecutors across the country, according to the Reflective Democracy Campaign, which collects data on the demographics of public officials. The vast majority of prosecutors run unopposed, which makes the Queens election an anomaly.

About 95 percent of elected prosecutors are white, and about 17 percent are women.

Learn more about the role of prosecutors with this resource by the Vera Institute for Justice.

What can't the District Attorney do?

New York law requires that the DA "shall not engage in the practice of law, act as an arbitrator, referee or compensated mediator in any action or proceeding or matter or engage in the conduct of any other profession or business which interferes with the performance of his duties as district attorney."

There's also such a thing as prosecutorial misconduct, though research suggests that this behavior often goes unpunished. Nine studies that examined a total of 3,625 instances of prosecutorial misconduct from 1963 to 2013 found public sanctions in only 63 of those cases.

New York passed a law creating a commission to investigate prosecutorial misconduct, but it has since faced opposition from the District Attorneys Association of New York (DAASNY), which argues it's unconstitutional.

Brown, the former Queens DA, said allegations of "rampant prosecutorial misconduct" are unfounded, according to the Gotham Gazette.

ProPublica in 2013 looked at nearly 30 cases of appellate courts overturning convictions because prosecutors committed some form of ethical or legal violation. In many cases, they'd failed to turn over evidence favorable to the defense.

District attorneys and their prosecutors already must disclose exculpatory evidence under the Brady doctrine, established by a U.S. Supreme Court case. That doesn't always happen.

"There is an epidemic of Brady violations," U.S. Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski has written.

A new state law requires New York's prosecutors to share evidence against criminal defendants within 15 days of arraignment

Learn more about the challenges of disciplining prosecutors for misconduct here.

Learn more about the Brady doctrine and violations here.