http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/nyregion/despite-ken-thompsons-short-stint-as-brooklyn-prosecutor-agenda-may-endure.html 2016-10-11 03:37:19 Despite Ken Thompson’s Short Stint as Brooklyn Prosecutor, Agenda May Endure Mr. Thompson, who died on Sunday of cancer, embraced and advanced the shifting roles that district attorneys play in the criminal justice system. === In New York politics, the city’s district attorneys have long been the edifices of elective office: legal lions presiding for years — often decades — over courthouse fiefs beyond the influence even of City Hall. Robert M. Morgenthau With his While it is impossible to predict his legacy, Mr. Thompson, 50, took office at an opportune time in the consciousness of the city and the country. His pledge to restore a sense of racial justice to his constituents in Brooklyn came at a time of heightened tension between law enforcement officers and minority communities. And he arrived in the district attorney’s office amid slow but steady change in how prosecutors across the country view their role in the criminal justice system — a shift that Mr. Thompson both embraced and advanced. “It’s likely that had he been in office longer, he could have made these changes even bigger,” said John Pfaff, a professor at Fordham Law School who has studied the role of district attorneys in the criminal justice system. “He had the right attitude and right position, as the D.A. of the second- or third-largest county in America, but he didn’t have the time. In some sense, he ends up being more of a reflection of the change than a cause.” In recent years, much of the debate about reforming law enforcement has centered on the police. Activist movements like Black Lives Matter and governmental efforts like the But district attorneys wield enormous power, too, and it is frequently overlooked or is cloaked in a kind of institutional invisibility. They decide not only whom to prosecute, but also how aggressively to prosecute, and play a crucial role in determining what sentences some defendants will eventually receive. “There’s not really a full understanding of the important role that prosecutors play in the system and the scope of their powers,” said Meg Reiss, the executive director of Though he could be a prickly manager and was “Many prosecutors — Thompson, among them — have recognized that they need to pick more carefully the cases where they use the full force of the state,” Ronald Wright, a professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law, said. “They’re beginning to treat the big cases like they’re big cases, but the small cases like they’re small cases.” Mr. Thompson was not alone in this approach. “All over the country, in big cities especially, crime prevention has become a crime-fighting strategy,” Mr. Vance said. “At the end of the day, you want to keep the gun out of the kid’s hand, not prosecute him if you can. There’s been a real focus in many offices on outreach to communities and prosecution strategies designed to do more than simply process cases in the courtroom.” Mr. Thompson, he added, “immediately embraced that philosophy and set out to place his mark on it.” Mr. Thompson’s biography was notable for his roles as an ally and an adversary of the police. He was the son of a police officer and a former federal prosecutor who made his name by working on the team that prosecuted Mr. Thompson’s desire to hold the police accountable while remaining sympathetic to the unique challenges that officers face was evident in his handling of the complicated case of Peter Liang, a former officer who was Given the traditionally close working relationship between the police and district attorneys, it was not an easy decision to prosecute Mr. Liang, a rookie officer who by all accounts fired the lethal shot accidentally as he and his partner patrolled a stairwell in a Brooklyn housing project. But similarly difficult was Mr. Thompson’s subsequent decision to seek no time in prison for Mr. Liang, a move that enraged Mr. Gurley’s family and Just six days ago, Mr. Thompson Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, has the power to name a permanent replacement, though his aides said on Monday that the governor had not yet decided whether to appoint someone. “The options are being reviewed,” Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said.