Ronell Earl Wilson was convicted of the 2003 capital murder of two undercover

Undercover

Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...

 New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 police officers in Staten Island

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. His trial before Judge Nicholas Garaufis

Nicholas Garaufis

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis is a United States district judge serving on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He was nominated by President Clinton on February 28, 2000, to a seat vacated by Charles P. Sifton and confirmed by the United States Senate on May 24, 2000...

 of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the entirety of Long Island and Staten Island...

 began on November 27, 2006. On December 20, 2006, he was found guilty of the capital murders as well as other related charges.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/nyregion/20cnd-verdict.html?hp&ex=1166677200&en=4b1860ae47c8d99b&ei=5094&partner=homepage On January 30, 2007, Wilson was sentenced to death,http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/nyregion/30cnd-death.html the first such sentence by a federal jury in New York since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/489122p-411815c.html

Prosecutors alleged Wilson was the leader of a violent drug gang called the Stapleton Crew (witnesses at the trial denied using that label) that originated in the Stapleton

Stapleton, Staten Island

Stapleton is a neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island in New York City in the United States. It is located along the waterfront of Upper New York Bay, bounded on the north by Tompkinsville at Grant Street, on the south by Clifton at Vanderbilt Avenue, and on the west by St. Paul's Avenue and...

 housing projects

Public housing

Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...

 of Staten Island. He was convicted for murdering NYPD Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews in a gun sale, then searching their bodies and stealing their car. The victims' family members and fellow police officers greeted pronouncement of his death sentence with cheers and applause; Wilson's reaction of sticking his tongue out in their direction http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/pageoneplus/corrections.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print was denounced by the local tabloids. http://www.nypost.com/seven/01312007/news/regionalnews/fry_baby_regionalnews_stefanie_cohen.htm?page=0

The case has attracted media attention because of the brutality of the murders as well as the rarity of a death penalty prosecution in New York. Wilson is the first person federally sentenced to the death penalty in New York in over 50 years.http://www.amny.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-officers-shot,0,6371348.story Wilson was originally charged in New York state court, but the federal government took over the prosecution after the New York Court of Appeals

New York Court of Appeals

The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...

 held that the state's death penalty statute violated the New York State Constitution.

He is currently held at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana

Terre Haute, Indiana

Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...

.

In 2010 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Wilson's sentence. In the sentencing phase, the prosecutor "argued: [i] that Wilson put the government to its proof of guilt rather than plead guilty; and [ii] that Wilson's allocution of remorse should be discredited because he failed to testify notwithstanding the fact that '[t]he path for that witness stand has never been blocked for Mr. Wilson.' As to the first argument, although a guilty plea may properly be considered to support a sentence mitigation for acceptance of responsibility, the Sixth Amendment is violated when failure to plead guilty is treated as an aggravating circumstance. As to the second, it is a fair argument for the prosecution to say that an allocution of remorse is unsworn and uncrossed, but the Fifth Amendment is violated when the defendant is denied a charge that limits the Fifth Amendment waiver to that which is said in the allocution and the jury is invited to consider more generally that the defendant declined to testify." Because these constitutional violations were not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the court vacated Wilson's and his co-defendants' death sentences and remanded to the trial court for re-sentencing. The government's petition for rehearing en banc was denied on October 19, 2010.

The prosecutor in the original case, Jack Smith, is now the Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice.

External links

• http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/nyregion/28trial.html?ref=nyregion
• http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7537
• http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_nypost-deadly_silence.htm
• http://www.amny.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-officers-shot,0,6371348.story
• Inmate Locator. Federal Bureau of Prisons
  Federal Bureau of Prisons
  The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
  
  . Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
• U.S. Court Strikes Down Death Sentence for Killer of Two New York Officers. Retrieved on 2010-06-30