Category Archives: Criminal Defense
Cuomo Vetoes Legislation That Would Have Addressed Criminal Defense Injustice Issues
Over the New Year’s weekend, Governor Cuomo vetoed two important pieces of legislation that would have reformed two New York criminal defense laws that currently promote injustice for innocent people. One of these laws would have decriminalized certain types of pocket knives and the other would have provided funding for court-appointed legal representation for… Read More »
Juvenile Defendants Still Denied Right to Counsel
December 2016 marked a seminal anniversary, whereby, fifty years ago, our U.S. Supreme Court enshrined a juvenile’s right to counsel; a right that is still overlooked in our justice system. Today, we still fail to provide many teenagers on trial with competent (or any) counsel in many instances, even though the right to effective… Read More »
Obama Continues With Presidential Clemency
On Monday, December 19th, President Obama issued 78 pardons and commuted the sentences of 153 prisoners, extending clemency to a total of 1,324 people—the highest in presidential history. Virtually all of them had been serving sentences after being convicted of nonviolent crimes under tough anti- drug laws in serious need of reform. Obama himself… Read More »
Is Sexual Harassment A Civil Wrong or A Crime?
Many have been following the scandal at Fox involving Roger Ailes, previous chairman, who has been accused of sexual harassment during the hiring process. These allegations reportedly echo other claims made by Fox News employees, indicating that sexual harassment was an issue there. While several of these individuals have now filed lawsuits against the… Read More »
Fake News Feeds Falsely Accusing Innocent Citizens of Committing Serious Crimes
Many people – some of them business owners—have recently found themselves caught in the middle of a fake news storm, where they are (slanderously) accused of various serious crimes, such as being involved in child abuse rings. Specifically, it appears that they were targeted for fabricated conspiracy theories as a result of supporting one… Read More »
New Bill Seeks To Reinstate Death Penalty in New Jersey
A bill was introduced the week of November 23rd seeking to restore the death penalty for serious crimes committed in the state of New Jersey, nine years after it was officially banned. New Jersey was the first state to abolish the death penalty in 42 years, replacing capital punishment with life in prison without… Read More »
Day Care Providers Charged With Manslaughter
Recently, an unlicensed daycare provider was charged with manslaughter in the death of a six-month-old child, who suffocated after entangling herself with her seatbelt strap while under the care of a provider who did not have a license, and who had previously been cited for failing to comply with restrictions on the number and… Read More »
Governor Cuomo Orders Investigation into Racial Bias in New York State Prisons
On Monday December 5th, Governor Cuomo announced that he was ordering an investigation into racial bias in the prison system of New York after an investigation conducted by the New York Times revealed that black inmates were punished at significantly higher rates, where guards were reported as using racism on a regular basis in… Read More »
Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Protesters Gain Victory but Still Face Arrest Charges
Many have been following the stories of the North Dakota pipeline protest, where protesters have, over the course of the last few months, been subject to tactics from law enforcement including the use of fire hoses and rubber bullets, and criminal arrests. On Sunday, December 4th, in a major victory for those protestors, the… Read More »
Police Going Undercover to Combat Hate Crimes
This election season has been a heated one, with bizarre incidents of people finding hate speech written on walls of schools, churches, and, in many instances, all over social media sites. For example, it was reported that mosques all over the country received thousands of handwritten letters threatening Muslims over the Thanksgiving holiday alone…. Read More »