PolitiFact – Are more than half of felony charges in Manhattan downgraded? Yes, but its common elsewhere, too

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joined his fellow Republicans in their attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who presented evidence against former President Donald Trump to a grand jury, which indicted Trump. Trump faces 34 felony counts, and is accused of falsifying business records as a way to protect his presidential aspirations.  

Bragg used his office to “impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis said at a recent news conference. “He has downgraded over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors.” 

Bragg’s approach to running the district attorney’s office has been the target of Republican criticism since he took office in January 2022. The case against Trump has increased GOP attacks on Bragg, a former federal prosecutor from Harlem.  

We wondered if DeSantis was correct, if more than 50% of felonies in Manhattan were downgraded to misdemeanors. 

Data posted on the district attorney’s web site shows how the office handled arrests over the years. 

Felonies are more serious charges, and can lead to more than one year in jail. Misdemeanors are lesser charges, and carry a penalty of up to a year in jail. 

In 2022, there were 15,710 felony arrests reviewed by Manhattan prosecutors, and the office declined to prosecute 1,225 of them, or 7.8%. Of the felony cases that survived the review process, 52% were downgraded to a misdemeanor, 7% were downgraded to a lower-level felony, 8% were upgraded to a different felony, 33% were an equivalent felony, and in .1% of cases, or just 12 cases, the charge was downgraded to a violation. The data does not indicate why prosecutors changed the charges, though experts told us this practice is not unusual. 

Under Bragg, prosecutors downgraded a greater share of felony charges to misdemeanors than in recent history in Manhattan. In 2021, under his predecessor, 47% of felonies were downgraded to misdemeanors. In 2020, when the city was under the strain of COVID quarantines and related judicial delays, that figure was 35%. It was 39% in 2019 and 40% in 2018. Data from 2023 show that so far, 54% of felonies have been downgraded to misdemeanors. 

But in the recent past, before Bragg took over, the rates of downgrading felonies to misdemeanors were higher in other New York City boroughs. Similar state data compiled by the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice show that in 2021, the most recent year available, three other boroughs had higher rates: 56% in the Bronx, 57% in Brooklyn, and 59% in Queens. (This data, which could have included a different set of cases, showed that in Manhattan in 2021, the rate was 52%.) 

A prosecutor’s decision to downgrade or upgrade a charge after an arrest is common, because they have more complete information than a police officer does at the time of an arrest, said Jullian Harris-Calvin, director for Greater Justice New York, part of the Vera Institute of Justice, which calls for an end to mass incarceration. While a police officer has to make a decision in the moment, a prosecutor can take a longer view of the situation, and weigh the evidence available to them and think through how they can build a case, Harris-Calvin said. 

Other experts agreed. 

“Law enforcement must establish probable cause to effectuate an arrest, but prosecutors are likely applying the higher standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt to determine what charges they may be able to prove at trial,” said Krystal Rodriguez, policy director at the Data Collaborative for Justice. 

There are other factors as well, said Hannah Meyers, a fellow and director of policing and public safety at the conservative Manhattan Institute. A state discovery law from 2019 burdened prosecutors, leading to increases in dismissal of cases, as well as other outcomes, including downgrading charges, she said. The law requires prosecutors to share their evidence with defense attorneys in a speedy fashion – within 20 days if a defendant is in jail – or risk having the case dismissed, though extensions are granted. The law was in response to situations where defendants and their lawyers were not aware of all of the evidence that would be used against them. 

Bragg has also brought his own priorities to the office, which perhaps can be attributed to the increase in the percentage of felonies that were downgraded to misdemeanors in 2022, Meyers said. 

Bragg’s critics think he should be tougher on people accused of crimes. His approach is not a surprise to anyone – he campaigned on promises to reform prosecutions. But soon after taking office, he came under fire for a memo in which he said that over-incarceration does not make the city safer, and that jail should be reserved for offenders who commit truly violent acts.  

Following sharp criticism from elected officials, police, and small businesses, Bragg issued another memo a month later, in which he changed some of the earlier memo’s language. For instance, he said that commercial robberies at knifepoint or with another weapon that could cause physical harm should be prosecuted as felonies.  

Bragg’s approach takes into account what he says is an over-incarceration in his borough. Manhattan incarcerated a greater share of its residents than the city’s other boroughs by a wide margin. On Jan. 3, 2022, of every 100,000 residents, Queens had 40 incarcerated, Brooklyn had 44, Staten Island had 51, the Bronx had 78, and Manhattan had 106. 

Bragg’s spokesperson pointed us to historical data on the district attorney’s website but otherwise declined to comment. 

DeSantis’s spokesperson did not return a request for information. 

Our ruling 

DeSantis claimed that Bragg has downgraded “over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors.” 

Data from Bragg’s website confirms that 52% of felonies that were screened by prosecutors were downgraded to misdemeanors in 2022, the first year Bragg was in office. Data from 2023 show that so far, 54% of felonies have been downgraded to misdemeanors.  

Experts said that downgrading charges is a common practice, and that it was done more often in three of New York’s other boroughs, according to state data from 2021. 

We rate this claim True. 

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