NY State Attorney General Wants Release of Attica Prison Riot Records

NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman asked a state judge on Friday to release sealed documents about the 1971 riots in Attica state prison. Schneiderman responded to the efforts of activist groups including the Forgotten Victims of Attica led by a group of prison employees who survived the riots and led and supported by relatives of those who died.

The prison riot which took place in 1971 saw 32 inmates and 11 staff killed, and though the efforts of troopers who retook the high security prison from the control of inmates was officially glorified, controversies have dogged the incident.


During five days of September in 1971, a group of inmates had taken control of the prison. Troopers stormed in killing indiscriminately to retake the prison. The then Governor, Rockefeller praised the operation of retaking the prison at the beginning calling it a "beautiful operation," but a day later acknowledged that there were a few problems in the versions - and that most hostages had not been killed by inmates but by indiscriminate shooting by the troopers.

Then President Richard Nixon, phoned Rockefeller saying "It's a tragedy that these poor fellows were shot …"

Official scrutiny began by establishing the Meyer Commission, but the commission soon found serious omissions in the evidence gathered by the state police and also that there was possibility of conflicts of interest with troopers investigating the acts of their fellow officers. Though the prosecution denied any intentional cover up - there was no explanation for the rifles, shotguns and pistols used and the buckshot and slugs fired by state trooper officers while retaking the prison.

Things were pushed under the rug when Governor Hugh Carey pardoned seven inmates in 1976 and officially barred disciplinary action against 20 troopers and prison guards. For reasons not clearly understood, inmate John Hill, who was found guilty of beating guard William Quinn to death, also received a quick pardon.

The Meyer Commission Report was duly sealed and went silent.

On Friday, Schneiderman asked the court in Wyoming County to release the hundreds of pages of the Meyer Commission Report and investigations, because, as he put it, "It is important, both for families directly affected and for future generations, that these historical documents be made available so the public can have a better understanding of what happened and how we can prevent future tragedies."