User:Tragic Baboon/RW



Ronell E. Wilson was convicted of murdering two undercover police officers in Staten Island, New York, in 2003. His trial before Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York began on November 27, 2006. On December 20, he was found guilty of the murders as well as other related charges. On January 30, 2007, Wilson was sentenced to death, the first such sentence by a federal jury in New York since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.

Wilson allegedly the leader of a violent drug gang called the Stapleton Crew by prosecutors (witnesses at the trial have denied using that label), originating in the Stapleton Projects of Staten Island.

The case has attracted a lot of media attention, because of the brutality of the murders as well as the rarity of a death penalty prosecution in New York. Wilson was originally charged in New York state court, but the Federal Government took over the prosecution after the New York Court of Appeals held that the state's death penalty statute violated the New York State Constitution.