Photo by Corky Lee
Just a day after ex-NYPD Officer Peter Liang was found guilty of manslaughter in the killing of Akai Gurley in a dark stairwell, Liang’s lawyers, Robert Brown and Rae Koshetz announced on Friday that they will appeal the conviction, reports DNAinfo.
At the Lin Sing Association on 49 Mott Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Brown said. “We plan to first make a motion in order to set aside the verdict, then appeal.”
Liang who was not at the press conference faces up to 15 years in prison for manslaughter, but Brown is hoping Judge Chun sentences Liang to probation instead of jail time.
On Tuesday, the judge dismissed the official misconduct charge because he felt the prosecution did not have enough evidence to prove such.
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Through an interpretor, Liang’s mother said at the press conference, “I still feel upset, so really upset.”
Liang’s partner, Shaun Landau was granted immunity to testify against Liang during the trial. During his testimony, Landau told the courtroom that he was not able to perform CPR on Gurley because he received answers from instructors to enable him to pass the course during the training. He was fired from the NYPD Friday morning.
Gurley’s family said in a statement, “We have come one step closer in getting justice for Akai, and we know he will be proud that we have taken a stand for him in holding Peter Liang accountable.”
Liang’s conviction left many Asian Americans feeling angry, sad and frustrated.
Some Facebook comments from Asian Americans about Peter Liang’s conviction:
“We, the Chinese American community MUST NOT give up on Peter so easily. We don’t have too many good intelligent young men to spare. We don’t bring them up so that they can become a victim, certainly not as pawns. Make him our last stand. We stand up to the establishment, be it peaceful or otherwise. I am sure the entire Chinese American population will be behind Peter. We don’t let him go to jail for 15 yrs, or 5 for that matter. We don’t squander a bright future like some other races.” – V.F.
“Peter Liang, a Chinese American police officer who accidently discharged his sidearm shooting a man unintentionally is found guilty of man slaughter that could be sentenced to prison for up to 15 years. White cop, caught on video intentionally used an illegal choke hold to subdue Eric Garner which caused his death, were found with “no reasonable cause” to indict that officer. Where’s the justice in that?!” – J.C.
Those sentiments are not unanimous in the Asian American community. The Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence has supported Gurley’s family.
“I understand that they feel like he is a scapegoat, but at the end of the day, a life was stolen from a family, and Officer Liang is part of a system that does it to many other people, and we can’t keep giving police officers impunity,” said Cathy Dang, executive director of CAAV, to the New York Times.
