This page was created by Anonymous.
Sentences in the Magistrates Court (39)
[WHAT IS DIFFERENT ON THIS PAGE THAN ON SENTENCED PAGE = ADD DISCUSSION OF INDIVIDUAL CASES - IDENTIFY SOME OF THOSE IN EACH GROUP = NO TAG TO THIS PAGE, TAGS ARE BY EVENT TYPE ONLY?]
[They had been convicted of disorderly conduct, which carried a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or two years of probation. That was half the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor, so it is to be expected that those sentenced in the Magistrates Court were typically imprisoned for shorter periods that those sentenced in the Court of Special Sessions and in the Court of General Sessions: eleven of the fifteen (for more than 10 days) for one month, compared to only three of fifteen sentenced to that term in the other courts. A term of three months was typical in those courts, imposed on four of those convicted in the Court of Special Sessions and four convicted in the Court of General Sessions. However, more sentences to terms around six months were imposed in the Magistrates Courts than in the other courts: two of five months and twenty-nine days (Preston White and Joseph Payne) and two of six months (James Lloyd and James Smith),
[Compare this overall pattern with that in the Magistrates Court - noting that DC conviction indicated that police had charged with a lesser offense, so did not have evidence that had committed the offense for which they had been arrested] While less than half of all those convicted, thirty-five of seventy-seven, were sentenced to more than a month in prison, the proportions varied by alleged offense. Just over half of those arrested for breaking windows and for looting received such a sentence compared with only one of those arrested for riot and one of those arrested for assault. The short sentences for assault reflected the failure of police to present evidence that those they had arrested had been involved in assaults, rather than part of crowds at the scene or, in the cases of James Hughes, targeting property.
Given the widely variety of activities encompassed by the Disorderly Conduct stature, it is difficult to tell if the sentences imposed by magistrates were out of the ordinary. In the week leading up to the disorder, when the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book recorded thirty-six men and women as convicted of disorderly conduct, two individuals received three-month terms and three six-month terms, including one charged with "jostling," placing the most severely punished acts in the disorder on a par with attempted pickpocketing. On the other hand, none of the remaining thirty-one sentences were for more than ten days, with fourteen for one to three days with the option to instead pay a fine and the sentences of eight suspended, making the one-month terms given to those arrested during the disorder a harsher punishment than was usual.