New York appeals court hears arguments over grand jury records in chokehold death

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday over unsealing minutes of a grand jury that declined to indict a white New York police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man.

A coalition of groups seeking release of the transcripts told the four-judge panel that grand jury secrecy undermined confidence in the justice system and hampered debate among state lawmakers weighing grand jury reforms.

The groups, which included the Legal Aid Society, want the appeals court to overturn a Staten Island justice's decision in March to bar release of records of the grand jury that probed the death of Eric Garner, 43, last year.

"The secrecy only reinforces suspicion, and there is deep suspicion here in the communities of color and among others," New York Civil Liberties Union attorney Art Eisenberg told the justices of the Supreme Court Appellate Division Second Department.

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