Jurors Standing By Their Decision

By JOE MAHONEY, TRACEY TULLY and BILL HUTCHINSON
Daily News Staff Writers

With protesters bashing their verdict, jurors in the Amadou Diallo murder trial said yesterday they are at peace with their decision but upset over the public outrage.

"It's like getting a kick in the teeth," jury forewoman Arlene Taylor told the Daily News.

A demonstrator waves his wallet during a protest rally at United Nations Plaza yesterday.

Juror Helen Harder, 71, said the evidence made the decision to acquit the four cops of killing the unarmed 22-year-old West African immigrant "very clear," and she questioned why prosecutors charged the officers with second-degree murder.

"The case that was presented by the prosecutors was very lacking," she said. "They didn't prove the case at all. They were not aggressive, and maybe that's because they didn't have anything to work with."

Harder believes the decision would have been the same even if the four officers had not taken the witness stand. "The whole thing happened within seconds," she said of the Feb. 4, 1999, shooting in the vestibule of Diallo's Bronx apartment building. "Their actions made sense."

The jury of four black women, one white woman and seven white men deliberated 23 hours before reaching their verdict Friday. Like other panelists, Timothy DeTraglia, 45, a former Catholic priest, said race did not enter into the jury's decision.

"This was not an easy thing for any of us to do," DeTraglia told The News. "It really wasn't. Yes, we had personal feelings, but the judge [Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi] did not charge us with personal feelings. He charged us with the law."

Harder said the deliberations were sometimes passionate, but never hostile. "Some of them shook fingers or presented too loudly, but it wasn't anything too personal," she said.

Another juror, who requested anonymity, said the panel agonized over the decision. "The only thing we knew was what was going on inside that courtroom and what was being presented to us," she said. "That is what we had to work on."

Juror Charise Smith told NBC News Teresi's instructions played a key role in the verdict. "We were told to look at this from the police officers' point of view, not from Mr. Diallo's point of view," she said.

Some panelists said they were troubled by Diallo's actions.

"He looked at the police officers, they identified themselves, and as they moved toward him, he turned and backed away," juror Tom Knowles told NBC. "Why? Why? We won't know those answers."

"The officers do have a right to defend themselves," juror Ed Powell said.