NYC nurse Tracy McCarter who killed her husband will not be prosecuted

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will no longer prosecute a Manhattan nurse accused of fatally stabbing her estranged husband more than two years ago in what she says was self-defense.

Bragg told the judge presiding over the case on Friday that he would be moving to have the second-degree murder charge against Tracy McCarter dismissed.

McCarter was accused of killing her husband James Murray in their Upper West Side apartment building in March 2020 after a history of abuse.

“Having carefully reviewed all of the evidence and discussed this matter at length with members of my office, I have reasonable doubts as to whether Ms. McCarter stabbed Mr. Murray with the intent necessary to support a second-degree murder conviction,” Bragg wrote to New York Supreme Court Justice Diane Kiesel, according to a copy of the letter provided by McCarter’s attorneys.

“I decline to proceed with the prosecution. Since “courts do not have the power to compel the prosecution of criminal acts,” … I also recommend that the indictment be dismissed,” Bragg wrote.

In May, Bragg tried to offer McCarter a no-prison plea by which she would plead guilty to manslaughter and criminal menace after a year of mandatory medical treatment for PTSD that would have the charges overturned. Judge Kiesel, however, rejected the deal.

Then in August, Bragg filed a motion to dismiss her murder charges and instead seek first-degree manslaughter charges — which was supported by McCarter’s legal team but also rejected by Kiesel, who said Bragg’s office failed to provide a solid legal basis create quarrel.

After two pleas were off the table, Bragg said his only choice was to dismiss McCarter’s murder charge.

“At this stage — with the proposed pleadings and the reduced charges barred — my options as a district attorney are few: proceed or decline to go to trial on a charge about which I have reasonable doubts,” Bragg wrote.

“I regret that my constitutional prerogative is now limited to the choice to proceed or not to proceed for second-degree murder. However, between these decisions I cannot act responsibly,” he concluded.

McCarter’s attorney, Sean Hecker, said the district attorney “righted a grave wrong.”

“Tracy McCarter is an innocent survivor of domestic violence who has suffered greatly under a criminal justice system calling for change,” Hecker said in a statement Friday. “We are grateful to everyone who supported Ms. McCarter and listened to her pleas.”

Last month, dozens of lawyers, including McCarter’s son, rallied outside Bragg’s Foley Square office and demanded that he drop all charges against McCarter.

During Bragg’s run to become Manhattan’s chief prosecutor, Bragg threw his support behind McCarter in a tweet September 2020 Link to a news article about her case.

McCarter, 46, stabbed Murray, 48, after he showed up at her apartment drunk, demanding money and threatening her.

Neighbors recalled hearing McCarter screaming for help and finding her over Murray’s bloodied body trying to stop him from bleeding. Earlier in the day they said he was drunk rampaging around the building.

McCarter had no previous NYPD records, and there was no history of domestic incidents reported at her home, authorities said.

However, Murray was hospitalized for his poisoning following an argument between the couple in July 2019, police said. He told police at the time that he was “an alcoholic and a recidivist.”

McCarter’s trial was scheduled to begin on November 28th.