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Read the press release here.

Ex-NYPD Officer Drops Appeal Over Akai Gurley Shooting Conviction

By Trevor Kapp | December 7, 2016 1:38pm
 Ex-NYPD Officer Peter Liang and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office have decided to drop their respective appeals on Liang's conviction for fatally shooting unarmed Akai Gurley in a NYCHA stairwell.
Ex-NYPD Officer Peter Liang and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office have decided to drop their respective appeals on Liang's conviction for fatally shooting unarmed Akai Gurley in a NYCHA stairwell.
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Pool/Dennis Clark

BROOKLYN — The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and Peter Liang have agreed to drop their appeals over the ex-NYPD officer's conviction for fatally shooting unarmed Akai Gurley in an East New York public housing stairwell.

Liang has also agreed to waive his right to file a motion to vacate his conviction for fatally shooting Gurley, 28, in the Pink Houses in November 2014, according to a letter sent to the court by ADA Ann Bordley.

In exchange, prosecutors are dropping their appeal to amend the manslaughter conviction that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun reduced to criminally negligent homicide at Liang’s sentencing in April, according to the letter.

Liang, who was fired by the NYPD upon his conviction, was sentenced to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service for fatally shooting Gurley while performing a vertical patrol.

Neither Liang, nor his partner, Shaun Landau, rendered aid as Gurley lay dying, prosecutors said.

Liang faced 15 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction.

“I, Peter Liang, in exchange for the agreement by the People to withdraw their appeal… hereby waive my right to appeal and my right to challenge my conviction and sentence in any proceeding in state or federal court,” Liang wrote in the letter.

Both sides said the agreement was in their best interest.

"Peter maintains his innocence but accepts Judge Chun's final ruling," Liang's defense lawyer, Paul Shechtman, wrote in an email. "He does not want to put himself and his family through the ordeal of a new trial. It it time to move forward with his life, and an appeal is moving backward."

“We stand by our prosecution of Peter Liang holding him accountable for the shooting death of Akai Gurley,” Brooklyn DA spokesman Oren Yaniv said.

“Given the unlikelihood that we would prevail on our appeal, this agreement is the best way to protect the integrity of the conviction and marks the end of a successful prosecution.”