New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has asked a state judge to release documents pertaining to the 1971 Attica Correctional Facility riot the Associated Press reported.
Schneiderman asked a Wyoming County court on Friday to release hundreds of detailed pages of sealed documents that are part of a 1975 report that examined New York's efforts to investigate the incident and its aftermath, according to the AP. The intent is to provide the full history of the bloodiest prison rebellion in the U.S. and provide answers to the families who lost loved ones during the incident.
According to Schneiderman, the five days, which began on Sept. 9, 1971, when inmates took over the maximum-security state prison until state troopers and guards arrived and violently took the facility back are the "darkest chapters of the state's government." Thirty-two inmates were killed, along with 11 hostages including staff, the AP reported.
All but four of the 41 victims were killed by bullets when troopers and correction officers fired hundreds of rounds in six minutes when they stormed the prison's D Yard on Sept. 13, 1971, wounding 89 more, according to the AP. The inmates began the riot in protest for better conditions.
Schneiderman said the documents can now go public after 40 years because criminal and civil litigation have ended and privacy concerns can be addressed by omitting the names of grand jury witnesses.
"It is important, both for families directly affected and for future generations, that these historical documents be made available so the public can have a better understanding of what happened and how we can prevent future tragedies," Schneiderman said, according to the AP.
The documents that were never released are part of the Meyer Commission Report: a 570-page document that was divided into volumes, according to the AP. The only volume released was the first which contained broad findings and recommendations. The others were sealed in 1981 because they contained grand jury testimony.
The Forgotten Victims of Attica, a group of prison employees who survived and relatives of those who died, also would like to see the rest of the documents go public.
Gary Morton, a lawyer representing the group, said earlier this year that families who lost someone "yearn to know the truth of how their loved one died and why they died," the AP reported.
The first volume was published four years after the riot and stated 62 inmates were accused for different offenses, but also stated the grand jury investigation was supposed to consider all possible crime by the troopers and prison officers, according to the AP. The original grand jury ended up refusing the indictment against four officers.
Although the commission report said important omissions took place, and that evidence gathered by state police could be biased due to troopers investigating their own fellow officers, no intentional cover-up was found, according to the AP.
In audiotapes from the riot published in 2011, President Richard Nixon offers support by phone to then Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller after the riot ended telling Nelson he'd done the right thing, according to the AP.
Nelson, who initially called the re-taking of the prison a "beautiful operation," said there was "a little problem" a day later when he found out most hostages were killed by gunfire and not hostile inmates.
Since the riot, there have been two settlement agreements to the survivors and families of prison staff: The first was an $8 million settlement for 502 claims filed, and the second was in 2005 when the state reached a $12 million settlement with survivors and families of prison staff caught in the riot, the AP reported.
