Tuesday 29 November 2022 03:30 PM Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg seeks to dismiss murder indictment against nurse who ... trends now
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a motion Monday to dismiss the murder indictment against a Manhattan nurse who fatally stabbed her husband after accepting $500,000 in Soros-backed campaign donations for his position on the case.
Tracy McCarter, 46, was charged as a result of stabbing her estranged husband, James Murray, 48, during a March 2020 argument at their Upper West Side apartment.
McCarter, a mother of four, has claimed self-defense as a result of years of spousal abuse, but upon presenting the case to a grand jury, she was indicted for murder.
The defendant now claims Murray accidentally 'fell' on the knife that killed him after previously claiming the Murray showed up drunk and demanding money.
The case's judge - Diane Kiesel of the state Supreme Court - withheld a decision on a motion to dismiss Monday. She said she will issue a decision by the end of the week.
A different judge previously rejected two attempts from Bragg to allow McCarter to plead to lesser charges - she determined both proposals to be illegal.
In court on Monday, McCarter and her supporters packed three benches in the court's gallery.
Tracey McCarter (left) appears in Manhattan Supreme Court Monday as DA Bragg petitions to have her murder case dismissed
McCarter, 46, was indicted on murder charges by a grand jury for the 2020 stabbing death of her estranged husband
Progressive Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was given $500,000 in campaign donations by a Soros-backed group in part due to his support of dropping the murder charge against McCarter
Manhattan prosecutors sent the case to a grand jury in September of 2020, when Bragg's predecessor Cy Vance was still in office. Bragg, at the time, was campaigning for his current role as Manhattan DA.
During his primary campaign, he voiced support for McCarter, tweeting 'I #StandWithTracy,' and signaling that he would, if elected, dismiss the 'unjust' case against the nurse.
His advocacy for McCarter's cause caught the attention of the George Soros-backed group Color of Change, which subsequently endorsed Bragg in the primary and handed him $500,000 of campaign coffer cash.
McCarter's case sparked debate and an ongoing campaign by criminal justice reform advocacy groups for the DA to abandon the case altogether.
