By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK- An undercover officer whose first trial in the killing of an unarmed man during a police raid ended in a hung jury was given permission Monday to be retried by a judge without a jury.
Officer Bryan Conroy was allowed to waive a jury for his retrial on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.
Conroy, 27, admits he shot Ousmane Zongo on May 22, 2003, in a Manhattan self-storage warehouse during a police raid aimed at confiscating counterfeit CDs and DVDs. He claims Zongo lunged at him and tried to take his gun.
Zongo, 43, a native of the West African nation of Burkina Faso who had limited understanding of English, was not accused of any wrongdoing. He had been working in the warehouse repairing African art and musical instruments.
Conroy’s first trial ended in March with jurors reporting they were deadlocked 10-2 for conviction.
Conroy’s lawyer, Stuart London, said he asked for a non-jury trial “because I want a fair trial for my client.”
“Jurors bring their life experiences into the courtroom,” London said. “Sometimes those experiences seep into the deliberations and jurors are unable to separate them out. I believe a judge can do that better than a jury can.”
An appeals court rejected a bid by Conroy’s lawyers to move the retrial out of Manhattan because of publicity. The lawyers said the case had been repeatedly compared to the killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African who was shot at 41 times by four officers in the vestibule of his apartment building. The four officers were tried in Albany and acquitted.
Conroy’s retrial is set for Sept. 26. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.