Now that the state court case against four officers involved in the Amadou Diallo shooting has concluded with Friday’s acquittal, the focus turns to a possible federal civil rights prosecution. But experts said a federal civil rights suit against police officers is a tough sell in any case, and the Diallo matter is hardly an exception.
“This case is the classic example of the type of case we would not prosecute,” said John R. Dunne, former head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Basically, the jury believed the cops.”
