Robert T. Johnson 1948–

New York City District Attorney

“Quirky” Election Made New York State History

Tangled with Governor over Death Penalty

In a career that has included time on both the defense and the prosecution sides of the courtroom—as well as in the judge’s chair—Robert Johnson has gained a reputation as an honest, hard-working, and committed public servant. His quick rise to prominence in the New York City legal establishment and his national recognition during a controversy over capital punishment have resulted from both his strong ethics and his ability to act on an opportunity. Most of all, he is a firm proponent of the validity of the legal system he serves. The Bronx Borough President, Fernando Ferrer, told the New York Times in September of 1988: “Two things about Rob appeal to me. One, he’s a guy who came up the hard way, through a tough neighborhood. Two, he has his heart and more importantly his head in the right place. He believes very deeply in the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.”

Mission to Help

Robert Thomas Johnson was born on February 18, 1948, at Lincoln Hospital in Bronx, New York, one of New York City’s five boroughs. His interest in law began at an early age, as his father, Robert, was a court officer who eventually rose to the third-ranked spot in New York City’s court police force. As a boy Johnson would watch trials in the courtrooms where his father worked. “It was a side of life I couldn’t really understand, how people would get into so much trouble,” he told the New York Times’ Sam Howe Verhovek in 1988. “It was an unfortunate side of life, but I also felt it could be my mission in life to help.”

When he graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx in 1966, he enrolled in the Baruch School of Business. In an interview with Contemporary Black Biography in January 1998, Johnson recalled that he initially studied accounting but found that he wasn’t very good at it. So, taking an interest in a philosophy course, he began to focus more on that subject. Johnson soon had plenty of time to read and think, as he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1968 and spent two years at sea along the east coast of the U.S. and in the Mediterranean. He told CBB that his training was in navigation, which meant plotting out the course the ship would take. After that work was done, the ship would take over, leaving lots of free time for activities like reading.

At a Glance…

Born Robert Thomas Johnson, February 18, 1948, in New York, NY; son of Robert (a court officer) and Olga (an actuary; maiden name, Payne) Johnson. Education: James Monroe High School, Bronx, New York, 1966; City College, New York, B.A. in philosophy, 1972; New York University, J.D., 1975.

Career: United States Navy, 1968-1970; criminal defense attorney, New York Legal Aid Society, 1975-1978; Bronx Assistant District Attorney, 1978-1986 (including Deputy Chief of the Major Offense Bureau, 1984, and Chief of the Narcotics Bureau, 1984-1986); appointed a Judge of the New York City Criminal Court, August 1986; promoted to Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, 1987; first elected District Attorney of Bronx County on November 8, 1988 and took office on January 1, 1989; re-elected to a four-year term in November 1991 and again in November 1995.

Awards: In 1991 a drug abuse prevention program co-sponsored by Mr. Johnson’s District Attorney’s office was officially recognized by President George Bush and selected as one of the “Thousand Points of Light” programs.

Member : New York State District Attorney’s Association (executive committee member and former president), New York State Arson Board, New York State Bar Association, Bronx Urban League (board member), Black Bar Association of Bronx County, Puerto Rican Bar Association, Bronx County Bar Association.

Addresses: Office —Office of the District Attorney, Bronx County, 198 East 161st St., Bronx, New York 10451. Phone: (718) 590-2000.

After his two years in the Navy, Johnson returned to the City College of New York in 1970 to take up his studies in philosophy, and he graduated in 1972 with a B.A. in philosophy. Asked by CBB whether he intended at the time to use this degree to get into law school, as many students do, he answered, “No, I had just been interested in the subjects we were studying, especially [the ancient Greek philosopher] Plato. And then having had the time to read while at sea I wanted to continue it.” But law school did follow, as Johnson decided to pursue his long-standing interest in law. He attended the prestigious New York University law school and received his J.D. degree in 1975.

Johnson’s first job out of law school was with the New York City Legal Aid Society, generally known elsewhere as the public defender. The organization has a contract with the city to provide legal counsel to those who can’t afford to hire their own, as all defendants are entitled by the Constitution to adequate legal representation. Often public defenders get a bad reputation for being less than adequate, mostly because they have so many cases and so little time to prepare. But Johnson told CBB that, despite inadequate resources, the Legal Aid Society “has a long track record of good public service.”

After three years as a criminal defense attorney, Johnson switched over to the district attorney, or prosecutor’s, office in the Bronx. Landing a position as an assistant district attorney, he spent eight years in that office from 1978 to 1986. He told CBB that making the switch was part of an effort to achieve the kind of well-rounded experience necessary to one day become a judge. He spent six months in 1984 as the Deputy Chief of the Major Offense Bureau and two and a half years as Chief of the Narcotics Bureau from 1984 to 1986. Lewis Alperin, president of the Bronx Criminal Bar Association, told the New York Times in June of 1988 that in a city where “Everybody’s yelling black and white Judge Johnson is a fellow to whom, in my experience, color doesn’t make any difference. He’s a straight-shooter.” He went on to describe an example of Johnson’s preference for the truth over merely winning a case. As a young prosecutor, Johnson had a witness in a manslaughter trial who admitted that the defendant wasn’t the perpetrator. Instead of just excusing the witness, as many prosecutors may have done, Johnson had the witness testify anyway, even though it didn’t help his case. This kind of approach to the justice system garnered Johnson a reputation for integrity that served him well in the coming years.

In 1986 New York Mayor Ed Koch appointed Johnson to a judgeship in the city’s Criminal Court. By the summer of 1987, after less than 10 months in the position and after failing to receive the Democratic nomination to a State Supreme Court judgeship, he was elevated to that court anyway. The administrative judge of the Criminal Court, Robert Keating, told the New York Times, “He’s going to be a loss because he was one of the hardest-working of the young judges on the bench. We thought so much of him that, when there was a vacancy to handle State Supreme Court matters, he was selected as an acting justice despite his junior status. He’s a really solid fellow.”

“Quirky” Election Made New York State History

But Johnson’s quick rise to prominence in New York City public service didn’t end there. In a turn of events he described as “quirky” and the New York Times called “one of the stranger elections in recent memory,” by November of 1988 Johnson was District Attorney-elect of Bronx County, New York. November of 1987 had been a very volatile time in Bronx politics as the sudden death of 15-year veteran D.A., Mario Merola, led to the interim appointment of Paul T. Gentile for one year. The ensuing power vacuum caused infighting among party officials. Candidates were endorsed and then later dropped; charges of official misconduct were leveled against the acting D.A. Amid the chaos, Johnson resigned his Criminal Court judgeship in June of 1988 to make an 11th-hour run for District Attorney.

At the same time as Johnson’s news conference to announce his candidacy, Gentile announced that he would not seek reelection because of the controversy over the charges against him. Johnson quickly received endorsements from the Liberal and Republican parties, assuring him a spot on the November ballot even if he failed to win the Democratic party nomination he sought. Carrying the added support of influential union leaders, Johnson then received the backing of the Democratic party leadership as well. On September 15, 1988 he won the Democratic primary with 39 percent of the vote, compared with the second place finisher’s 28 percent, virtually assuring his election in the heavily Democratic district.

Johnson won the November election overwhelmingly and took office on January 1, 1989, the first black District Attorney in New York State history. He described this achievement as “historic” and “long overdue.” At that time, according to the New York Times, the Bronx was about 33 percent black and 33 percent Hispanic, making it the first borough with a black/Hispanic majority. In comparison, the city as a whole was 23 percent black and 18 percent Hispanic. The statistics for black representation nationwide were even more startling. According to Black Enterprise, in 1989 Johnson was one of only six black District Attorneys out of 2,900 nationwide. Once in office, Johnson acted quickly to address this issue by pushing for more minority assistant district attorneys. Only 22 percent of the assistant D.A.s were non-white at the time.

Having seen his predecessor begin the effort to improve these numbers, Johnson found that a major obstacle was the lack of qualified lawyers. “We’re dealing with a small pool of applicants,” Johnson told the New York Times in 1989. He went on to explain that from 1984 to 1986 only 10 percent of the law school graduates in the U.S. were people of color. Further exacerbating the situation, he said, was the fact that many young law students he talked to felt like being a prosecutor was in some way being disloyal to their community. “I tell them that both defense attorneys and prosecutors have the chance to represent the poor and the oppressed.”

In 1989 the New York Times quoted Denise Outram, president of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, on the importance of the issue. She said that having a black District Attorney would help show the borough’s minorities that they had a stake in society: “It makes a difference to have a black D.A. There has been a real lack of trust and confidence in the community of not only the D.A.’s office but of the police as well. Now the level of confidence might be raised a little bit because a black person holds that position.”

Aside from the additional issue of increasing opportunity for people of color, just carrying out the District Attorney’s mandate was a tough job. A September 6, 1988 New York Times editorial endorsing Johnson for District Attorney described the task at hand: “The Bronx District Attorney must have the ability to manage 350 lawyers, a $24 million budget, and an annual caseload of 50,000. Current law enforcement challenges in the Bronx are daunting: drug trafficking and the continuing saga of corruption among Bronx County politicians. Character is important. Good prosecutors carry themselves discreetly and know how to balance toughness with fair play and restraint.” Johnson told Black Enterprise that his top priorities for the office were bias-related crime, public corruption, and drug-related cases. “No criminal conduct can go unprosecuted,” he said. “I am committed to prosecute anyone, be it a public official or a drug dealer.”

Tangled with Governor over Death Penalty

Another major issue during Johnson’s tenure as District Attorney—and one which won him extensive local and even national recognition—was capital punishment. For years Democratic Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo had vetoed state legislature votes to reinstate the death penalty. Then a new Republican governor, George Pataki, reinstated the death penalty in New York. The day Pataki did so, on March 7, 1995, Johnson released a statement declaring his intention not to seek death as a punishment for first-degree murder cases. There was an immediate outcry from politicians and many citizens, but he stood his ground, saying only that he wouldn’t rule out capital punishment but rather decide on a case-by-case basis. One year later, when police officer Kevin Gillespie was shot to death in the Bronx, a struggle erupted between the governor and Johnson over whether to seek the death penalty. When Johnson refused to promise to seek the death penalty, Governor Pataki removed him from the case, handing it over to the state attorney general. The D.A. sued to block the order but a state judge found that the governor was within his rights, and on appeal the State Supreme Court concurred in March of 1997.

Ironically, the original case had come to an end in September of 1996 when the defendant hung himself in his jail cell. But the controversy and the legal issue of authority over prosecution of such cases reverberated. Asked by CBB whether he thought the case was really about jurisdiction and whether the hype overshadowed the real issues confronting the battle against crime, Johnson said that both the death penalty debate and the legal issues were appropriate. In terms of how it affected him, he explained: “It had both a positive and a negative effect on me personally. On the positive side it made me more visible, but on the negative side some people took it as my being ‘soft on crime,’ even though the death penalty hasn’t impacted crime, which was going down for three years before it was reinstated.”

Worked to Prevent Drug-Related Crime

While Johnson continued to avoid the death penalty, he was very aggressive in responding to crime in the Bronx. Dealing with a caseload of 70,000 arrests made in 1997, his office sent 12 percent more convicted felons to prison than any other district attorney’s office in the state. But he also pursued opportunities to assist those who worked to prevent crime from happening in the first place, especially programs working to prevent drug-influenced crime. In 1991 a drug abuse prevention program co-sponsored by his office was selected by President George Bush to become one of the “Thousand Points of Light” programs, a nationwide effort to promote volunteerism. He also sponsored a program called “Youth Talkin’ to Youth,” which offered peer-mediation and conflict resolution skills to children at risk for violent behavior. And in 1998 his office began a mentoring program where members of his staff worked with high school students to provide positive role models and direction. Johnson himself had been a mentor to junior high students for a number of years.

Re-elected to a four-year term in November 1991 and again in November 1995, Johnson is a popular district attorney and community figure, the controversy over the death penalty notwithstanding. Asked by CBB whether he plans to pursue city-wide or even higher office, Johnson said that he was content for the time being: “I got where I am by taking things step by step, so I plan to continue doing that—just focusing on the job and doing the best I can. I love this job and have no plans now for leaving it.”