Last spring, several defense and civil rights organizations sent a letter to the citys five district attorneys and the special narcotics prosecutor, identifying 20 police officers who had been convicted of crimes and two others who had engaged in work-related misconduct. CUNY Law was one of 13 recipients of this national competitive bid. 199 Water Street. When a wrongfully convicted individual is exonerated, the original crime victim may experience feelings of guilt, fear, helplessness, devastation and depression. Sims attorneys have filed a petition to overturn his conviction, but the judge hearing their case, Danny Chun, has never reversed a conviction during his 16 years on the bench. The collaboration between the Defenders Clinic and The Legal Aid Societys Wrongful Conviction Unit will help the next generation of social justice attorneys develop vital lawyering skills while increasing access to post-conviction legal representation. In a statement responding to questions sent to the DAs office by New York Focus, spokesperson Yaniv characterized Sims account as novel. Find job opportunities near you and apply! How can I contact you?" Elizabeth Felber, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society's wrongful convictions unit, thanked Katz, who is the first District Attorney in the city to seek to overturn convictions in . The WCU played an integral role in bringing these convicted officers to their attention and demanding justice for our clients whose lives were impacted by these corrupt officers. Nobody is currently incarcerated as a result of these convictions, and none of the 13 officers involved in the cases remain on the force. We are excited that this collaboration with the Wrongful Conviction Unit will provide more access to legal advocacy for incarcerated New Yorkers, while also growing CUNY Laws relationship with the Legal Aid Society, one of our closest partners, said Nicole Smith Futrell, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Defenders Clinic. At trial, the States star witness was Graves, who testified that Sims had shot the victim. Clemency Previously a reporter for Courthouse News, he has appeared as a guest on NewsNation, NBC, MSNBC, CBS's "Inside Edition," BBC, NPR, PBS, Sky News, and other . Research shows challenges to wrongful convictions have extremely low success rates; even defendants who were later exonerated by DNA evidence had their appeals rejected in more than 90 percent of cases, one study. He did so much damage to everybody., After dismissing the charges against Cooper, Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Ruth Shillingford called for an independent investigation into the circumstances that led to his wrongful conviction, saying, There has got to be an evaluation of what happened in every case. Clemency. In that case, officers were found to have planted evidence, falsified records and rewarded informants with drugs. Riley also believes that there are many others who deserve the second chance that he received. They should be an entirely independent agency, totally separate from any DAs office., A lot of the prosecutors know each other, he said. Iowa State Public Defender Wrongful Conviction Division Des Moines, IA. This is why our office consented to a hearing that would allow Mr. Sims to argue his claim of innocence before a judge, including a new contention, not made in previous motions, that his good friend was the alleged perpetrator and then conspired to frame him., But at trial, Sims defense counsel said that Graves, not Sims, was the perpetrator. In 2013, controversy over Hynes tactics helped Kenneth Thompson defeat Hynes. Prior to joining the Legal Aid Society in 2016, David spent 10 years as the Managing Attorney at the Innocence Project, where he supervised attorneys working to exonerate innocent clients and spearheaded the organization's amicus curiae practice throughout the country. Additionally, each year, the Defenders Clinic hosts an experienced attorney on leave from The Legal Aid Society as a Fellow and Supervising Attorney. James Davis. Citizens of society put their trust in the courts to keep communities safe. Emily Niedzwiecki. Their scientists will collaborate with the Delivering Justice Project to determine the most appropriate DNA testing and analysis. Get familiar with some legal terms and acronyms you might hear like appeal, adjournment, petition, jurisdiction, deposition, and affidavit. BY: Elizabeth Dickinson | DATE: Jan 04, 2021, BY: Naz Ahmad, Acting Director of CLEAR | DATE: Feb 01, 2023, Delivering Justice: CUNY Law and The Legal Aid Society Team Up to Reduce Incarceration through Post-conviction Testing of DNA Evidence. The woman had told the authorities that Mr. Sandino warned that she would go to jail and lose custody of her children if she refused. Heres what you should know to prevent wrongful discrimination. . All of the other officers were also convicted of crimes that involved abuse of power, prosecutors said mostly during undercover work and street level policing. Our work is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism. Browse All Categories; Urgent. The letter asked the offices to review and erase convictions in which the officers played a role. All Rights Reserved. I think thats a farce, said Collins. Since 2015, the DNA Unit of the Legal Aid Society in New York City has held an annual, two-day forensic conference for defense attorneys called Questioning Forensics. | translate }}, {{ "How do I add all the resources in my area?" Coopers appellate criminal defense attorney and civil attorney is Tom Hoffman, the same person representing Sims. The truth is gonna come out eventually.. The Defenders Clinics new grant-funded wrongful conviction project will build on the expertise developed through its parole and clemency work, add forensic evidence investigation to its post-conviction practice and deepen a long-standing partnership with The Legal Aid Society. While it may not undo the harm caused to you. Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily. In the fall of 2017, The Legal Aid Society launched The Womens Pretrial Release Initiative (The Initiative). All Rights Reserved, Wrongful Convictions, Appeals, Clemency & Sealing, Empowering People with Disability & Health Issues, Lifting the Voices of Children & Adolescents, Supporting Survivors of Violence & Navigating Divorce, Discrimination Based on Arrest & Conviction Records, What You Need to Know About Marijuana Legalization in New York, What You Need to Know About Marijuana Expungement, What You Need to Know About Loitering & Prostitution Records, What You Need to Know About Sealing Your Criminal Convictions, What You Need to Know After Your Convictions Have Been Sealed, What You Need to Know About Discrimination Based on Arrest and Conviction Records. c/o The Legal Aid Society. It is free and automatic. The Wrongful Conviction Unit continues to grow in size and outreach since its inception in 2019. 2023 The Legal Aid Society. But this is not enough to protect an applicant to the CRU from an inherent conflict of interest, said Collins, who met Sims twenty-five years ago while they were both incarcerated in New York. (c) Comstock, Thinkstock, royalty-free ( see reuse policy ). | translate}}, {{ "Select a category below to get started" | translate }}, {{ "Total resources added across time" | translate }}, {{ "Number of resources viewed in the past year" | translate }}, {{ "Community contributors" | translate }}, {{ "Want some help? About Us. But the CRUs preliminary review may have been undermined by a fundamental conflict of interest: Mark Hale, who led the unit from its creation in January 2014 until July of this year, was the lead prosecutor in Sims murder trial. This is a very important role; the work of this committee is of extraordinary importance, not just to the Muslim community, but to all communities in New York. CRUs are tasked with investigating convictions secured by their own officeoften the colleagues, friends and supervisors of CRU staff. It hires more graduates from CUNY Law than any other law school. A conviction may be classified as wrongful for two reasons: About half of them involved four officers who were involved in a corruption scandal that rocked the police departments narcotics operations in Brooklyn more than a decade ago. The judge admonished Hale for committing prosecutorial misconduct. She struck the witnesss testimony, but allowed the case to proceed. The site contains instructions and forms for applying for commutations and pardons. DECISION AND ORDER BRENDA K. SANNES Chief District Judge. Public defenders and advocates for criminal justice reform say Sims case highlights an inherent problem with the Brooklyn CRU and similar conviction review units in DAs offices across the country, in which prosecutors serve as the gatekeepers for potentially innocent people seeking to overturn convictions that resulted from their own misconduct. The Bronx district attorney has also vacated more than 250 convictions that relied on a single officer, who has since been accused of lying in other cases. He only implicated Cooper after police told him his charges would be dropped if he cooperated. Im sure that some day all of it will be exposed and many people will have their day in court again.. Anyone can read what you share. Historically, the parole boards routinely denied parole to people who maintained their innocence because they were not accepting responsibility for crimes they did not commit. These positions require . One witness for the prosecution, who was under arrest for an unrelated attempted murder, repeatedly told police he had no information on Coopers alleged involvement in the murder, according to Coopers civil complaint. When he went to prison, his wife, Kisha, brought their children to visit every weekend. Sims said he told his trial counsel that he saw Graves commit the crime and asked to testify, but that the lawyer advised him not to testify. For Scandal-Plagued For-Profit Colleges, No State Is More Welcoming Than New York. Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023. After the shooting, Graves told police that he took the gun home with him and wiped it down to remove fingerprints. His then-wife, Kisha Sims, said she expected that he would be acquitted and had been planning a coming home party for him. Queens DA Melinda Katz Moves To Expunge 60 Convictions Linked To Corrupt NYPD Officers, We rely on your support to make local news available to all, Overdose prevention centers save lives but remain in legal limbo, as NYC moves toward expansion, Overdoses of two men leaving Manhattan gay bars last spring found to be homicides, A man is dead after an encounter with police in New Jersey, Suspect arrested in connection with NJ State Trooper shot in leg. Speakers have ranged from scientists and academics to practicing attorneys. Of the Brooklyn cases, 331 were misdemeanor convictions and 47 were felonies. In 2016, Sims wrote a letter to the Brooklyn DAs conviction review unit, or CRU, asking them to investigate his case. Access to legal aid translates into access to justice for the poor, the marginalized, and the disadvantaged. Graves testimony was essential for the prosecutions case. Include a mailing address for the CRU to contact the convicted person or their attorney. In the year following Sims trial, Graves and his family received more than $22,000. The project team will then locate and test evidence. At The Legal Aid Society our Civil, Criminal Defense, Juvenile Rights, and Pro Bono practices work tirelessly in and out of thecourtroom to defend our clients and dismantle the hidden, systemic barriers that can prevent them from thriving in New York City. The strength of our criminal justice system depends on its accuracy its ability to convict the guilty and to clear the innocent. Subscribe to The Legal Aid Society's newsletters for campaign updates, case victories, client stories, and more. For more than two decades, Sims has tried to overturn his conviction in the appellate courts, without success. Pursuant to a federal grant, our WCU has teamed up with CUNY Law Schools Criminal Law Clinic and the Henry Lee Institute of Forensic Science to broaden its ability to represent the wrongfully convicted. Enough is Enough: Combating Sexual Misconduct | Notice of Non-Discrimination | Legal Notices | CUNY Copyright | Text Only View | The Registry provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new evidence of . . Law&Crime's managing editor Adam Klasfeld has spent more than a decade on the legal beat. If you are innocent and have exhausted all appeals for a conviction in New York City, write to The Wrongful Conviction Unit and request our questionnaire to be considered for representation: The Wrongful Conviction Unit The justice system can be overwhelming. View Case Acceptance Criteria. He served more than 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. They cannot be made over the phone. Sims with his sons, Antoine and Anthony Jr., in 2015 | Keisha Sims. 199 Water Street New York, New York, United States . INTRODUCTION The Clerk has sent to the Court for review a pro se civil.20230302561 The Exploitation Intervention Project works with trafficking survivors to help them vacate criminal convictions related to their trafficking and seal the records of those arrests. I know in my heart and God knows that I am not capable of what I was convicted of, Sims said, according to a court transcript. If you have a maximum of two convictions (one of which is a felony) that are more than 10 years old, you may be eligible to apply for sealing and representation in your application. Elizabeth Felber, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Societys wrongful convictions unit, thanked Katz, who is the first District Attorney in the city to seek to overturn convictions in response to the mass exoneration campaign Felbers organization helped spearhead.Felber also directly addressed the 60 people who had their convictions purged, some of whom she said served prison sentences, lost jobs, and had licenses suspended as a result. And in Manhattan, more than 140 ongoing cases and convictions that Mr. Franco was central to have also been tossed out. His son began to sob. 199 Water Street The Legal Aid Society, one member of the 2021 group, urged the city's district attorneys to continue reviewing potentially wrongful convictions "on an ongoing basis and with full transparency . Practicing as a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. James Grigson was called upon to evaluate people charged with capital murder crimes. The NYC health commissioner explains how City Hall plans to support supervised injection sites and other portions of a new initiative to reduce overdose deaths 15% by 2025. Post-conviction case files will be reviewed to determine which evidentiary item(s) should be initially tested for DNA and/or retested using modern, advanced technologies. All Rights Reserved. but did not discuss the year that she supervised the Conviction Review Unit before the Bureau was created. The new head of Brooklyns Conviction Review Unit should be someone with no prior connection to the office, in order to avoid any conflicts of loyalty or unconscious bias, Felber told New York Focus in a statement. No physical evidence linked Sims to the crime. PHOTO CREDIT: Eagle Photo by Noah Goldberg. Mr. Danese was convicted of disorderly conduct in 2009 after he arrested a teenage boy on Halloween and abandoned him half-naked in a desolate Staten Island marsh. The Wrongful Conviction Unit continues to grow in size and outreach since its inception in 2019. After his testimony, however, the Brooklyn DAs office dropped the violation of probation. If you are looking to donate, get involved, or get assistance, find and connect to your local Network organization here. The U.S. Department of Justice has granted CUNY School of Law, in partnership with The Legal Aid Society, nearly $500,000 to establish a project that will review and litigate select wrongful conviction claims of New Yorkers incarcerated in state prisons. , the Brooklyn DAs office has claimed that Hale did not review Sims case. A few months before Graves testified, the Brooklyn DAs office filed a Violation of Probation and scheduled a hearing on the matter for May 10, 1999, the same day he testified at Sims trial. CUNY Law was one of 13 recipients of this national competitive bid. The police department did not respond to a request for comment. The PATRIOT ACT is invoked against TREASONOUS Justices aiding and abetting abject fraud culminating in GENOCIDE of the American middle class. Hammurabi's Law-"Eye for an eye mentality"-The king set clear laws to better govern his . Chao Tzee Cheng was the son of a professor in cultural studies and a school principal.Of Cantonese origin, he later migrated to Singapore with his parents and received his education at Catholic High School and Victoria Continuation School. Yet, when he appeared at trial, Graves testified that he was in court voluntarily and that he regularly checked in with his probation officer. The Legal Aid Society had filed an amended lawsuit to stop illegal apartment layout alterations initiated by the landlords, which threaten to displace long-term rent-stabilized tenants, as reported by Gothamist.. Our goal is to get them each to agree to vacate our clients convictions most of whom are serving life sentences. I never got a chance to tell my story, Sims told New York Focus. Record Sealing In a statement through his attorneys, he told New York Focus that he thought if he accused Graves in the letter, it would just seem like I was looking for a scapegoat., I wrote in bold letters, I AM INNOCENT, Sims said in his statement to New York Focus. Paralegal II - Wrongful Conviction Unit at Legal Aid Society New York City Metropolitan Area. At the Legal Aid Society, Riley is part of a team that reviews claims of innocence, working to help to those who were wrongfully convicted achieve the vindication they seek and deserve. He pleaded guilty in 2011 and was sentenced to a prison term of a minimum 37 years. He said he forgave him years ago, during a family visit. Hochul says it "goes without saying" that a taxpayer-funded track renovation will bring jobs and boost attendance. In fact, Hale told the jury during closing arguments: Now you heard the summation of the defense Mr. Tims [Sim defense attorney] wants you to believe that Julius Graves is the perpetrator of this crime., In Sims 2016 letter to the CRUwhich he wrote himself, without legal counselhe said that he was innocent and included Graves recantation, but did not say he had witnessed Graves kill the victim. The gun used in the murder was kept in the apartment where Graves lived. Heres what you should know after your conviction has been sealed. Meet the Newest Network Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts, events and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio. DNA; Non-DNA; Find and save resources 24/7 from anywhere!' Sims and his attorneys allege that police and prosecutors, including Hale, illegally suppressed evidence of Sims innocence and pressured witnessesincluding Gravesinto making false statements. Graves did not respond to multiple requests for comment from New York Focus. The expertise of renowned forensic scientists at the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science, with decades of experience in post-conviction work will enhance this collaboration. The Legal Aid Society's Parole Revocation Defense Unit has an immediate opening for a Staff Attorney. Admission & Aid Overview; Undergraduate Admission; The site contains instructions and forms for applying for commutations and pardons. Many of these convictions were secured in the late 1980s and early 90s, when misplaced and biased prosecutorial and police responses to substance abuse, poverty, and racial tension within communities, led to a surge of questionable arrests and convictions. Alfonzo Riley, a paralegal in TheLegal Aid Societys Wrongful Conviction Unit, was recently profiled by The Appeal. However, in 1994, Hunt's legal team filed for DNA testing. One of those officers, Jerry Bowens, was charged with killing his girlfriend while he was facing charges arising from the corruption case. In court, Katz promised that these expungements were just the beginning as her office continues to probe the work of the other officers tied to convictions in Queens. They dont want to hurt their friends or make their friends look bad. If the true focus of the CRU is to do justice, you need someone whos not going to get everything from a prosecutorial perspective and look at ways to save the conviction, said Collins, a legal analyst with Horizon Research Services. Subscribe to The Legal Aid Society's newsletters for campaign updates, case victories, client stories, and more. Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez is searching for a replacement for Hale, and defenders are urging him to hire someone from outside the DAs office to lead the unit. Juvenile Rights Practice Entry Level Staff Attorney- Fall 2023. On the night of May 18, 1998, Anthony Sims, 22, drove his friend, Julius Graves, 23, to a Chinese take-out restaurant in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. To me that's just an inherent dual loyalty," said Elizabeth Felber, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society's wrongful conviction unit. In a trial that Sims and his attorneys say was marred by false testimony and improperly withheld evidence, Sims was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life. The Clinic has had tremendous success in securing parole release and sentence commutation. Legal Aid Society Wrongful Conviction Unit, Iowa State Public Defender Wrongful Conviction Division. These convictions continue to hang around people and impact them in all kinds of ways, Mr. Gonzalez said. The CRU will contact the convicted . According to Sims attorneys, Hale never disclosed this information to the defense. "Most of our cases are 20 to 30 years old and the DNA technology has . The Legal Aid Society is taking precautions and implementing safety measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to comply with New York City's requirements concerning Covid-19. It was at that point, I forgave him, said Sims. 40 Worth Street, Suite 606. Quick hits with little oversight, said Charles Linehan, a former Manhattan prosecutor who has run the Brooklyn district attorneys conviction review unit since January. Phone: 917-661-4500 or 646-442-3600. We deliver justice in every borough, working tirelessly to make our city a better place. There is nothing that you need to do to make this happen. So its easy to sweep things under the rug, its easy to rubber stamp things., Sims was 24 when he was convicted. View Case Acceptance Criteria. | translate }}, {{ "Add or edit any resource" | translate }} The total is expected to rise to 496.
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