Kalief Browder (May 25, 1993 – June 6, 2015) was a 22-year-old who was arrested at the age of 16, on false charges of robbery (for allegedly stealing a backpack) and imprisoned without conviction for three years. His case has been cited by activists who call for reform of
New York City's criminal justice system.
Arrest and imprisonment
Browder was arrested at age 16, in May 2010, while walking to his home on
Arthur Avenue in
the Bronx. Browder was charged with second degree robbery. He was unable to make his $10,000 bail. Maintaining his innocence, he refused to take a plea bargain that would have released him. The case was eventually dismissed and Browder was released in June 2013 by Judge
Patricia DiMango [1] after numerous postponements of his case and 31 hearings.
[2][3]
For two of those years, Browder was held in
solitary confinement or administrative segregation.
[4] His story was covered in some degree by local press after his release,
[2] and Browder was profiled in
The New Yorker in October 2014 for being held for three years on
Rikers Island without a trial.
[5] The exposure of his case became the impetus for proposed reforms in the New York City criminal justice system.
[6][7]
Suicide and aftermath
In June 2015, Browder committed suicide by hanging himself.
[8][9] The conditions of his detention were widely seen as having caused his mental condition and five or six prior attempts at suicide while incarcerated, so much so that six days after his death, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Anthony Kennedy invoked Browder's experience in his opinion regarding an unrelated case.
[10]
The lawsuit alleging violation of Browder's rights under the
Speedy Trial Clause of the
U.S. Constitution continues on behalf of his family, despite his death.
[11]
On January 25, 2016, former President
Barack Obama wrote an article in
The Washington Post criticizing the "overuse" of solitary confinement in American jails. The former president based his arguments largely on Browder's experience.
[12]