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Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935

District Attorney's Closed Case Files

When a magistrate referred a case to the grand jury, the District Attorney's office created a case file. That case file contains the standard forms generated in the Magistrates Court—an affidavit charging a crime that contains a few sentences at most describing the circumstances, an examination of the defendant that records their age, birthplace, home address, occupation, and plea, and a copy of their criminal record. If the defendant was indicted, there is also a copy of the indictment, which records only the charges, not any information about the circumstances. In some cases, additional documents are included in the file: handwritten notes taken by the prosecutor during court hearings, transcripts of statements by witnesses, and memos with explanations of the outcome of the case.

The process of prosecution is documented on a form printed on the exterior of the envelope file folder, with space for recording the date of the Magistrates court hearing, the hearing in the grand jury, appearances in the Court of General Sessions and verdict, and the names of the assistant district attorney and judges in any court appearances. When the grand jury instead referred a case to the Court of Special Sessions, the folder is stamped with a form so that information can be recorded. No verdict is recorded for cases referred to that court.

Files for some of those arrested during the disorder could not be found, likely because they were either misfiled or not returned to the file system by prosecutors who used them.

Thanks to Ken Cobb and the staff of the Municipal Archives for help accessing this material. The case files were gathered with the support of the Australian Research Council as part of the Year of the Riot project, on which I collaborated with Shane White and Stephen Garton.
Archival Sources