Attorneys for former NYPD Officer Peter Liang, who was found guilty of manslaughter and official misconduct last month in the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Akai Gurley, have filed a motion to overturn the convictions on the grounds that the rookie cop did not receive adequate CPR training.
"If the People continue to press a 'he-should-have-performed-CPR' theory in response to this motion, it would be to punish an officer for not performing a task he was not trained to do," reads the motion acquired by the Post. Melissa Brown, the NYPD officer who taught Liang's CPR class, was stripped of her badge earlier this month as part of an ongoing internal investigation into the department's CPR classes.
Prosecutors for the Brooklyn DA's Office made the case during Liang's trial that the officer and his partner had stalled for several minutes after shooting Gurley, arguing over who should call their superior while Gurley lay dying. Liang's defense countered that the officer attempted to get help much sooner, and presented Liang as an overwhelmed rookie who pulled the trigger by accident.
News of the motion to overturn comes less than a week after the Chinese Action Network postponed a scheduled march across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the Liang verdict. Thousands of protesters, many of them Chinese Americans, also flooded Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn Heights last month, to accuse the criminal justice system of singling out an Asian-American officer for punishment while other officers who killed innocent people have avoided prison. A Facebook page for the canceled march says the decision was made "after consultation with Peter Liang's new legal advisor."
Indeed, this week's motion was filed by two new members of Liang's defense team. Paul Shechtman of Zuckerman Spaeder Law Firm has considerable experience arguing in appellate court, according to his bio. Gabriel Chin, a law professor at UC Davis, confirmed his involvement in the case to NBC. Chin focuses on immigration and race law, and successfully repealed 19th and 20th Century alien land laws that prohibited non-US Citizens, primarily Japanese, from owning agricultural land in the US.
Robert Brown, Liang's attorney since last fall, told NBC that the team is also planning to submit thousands of letters to Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun asking for Liang to be sentenced to probation, or for the charges to be dropped altogether.
Liang is scheduled for sentencing on April 14th, and faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.
