In The News

ZMO Law client Tracy McCarter, a survivor of domestic abuse, is awaiting trial for murder despite overwhelming evidence that she acted in self defense. Her case highlights the inequities that remain in the American justice system, a system that skews in favor of white men and repeatedly fails women of color.

In New York, two-thirds of women incarcerated for killing someone close to them had been abused by that person, according to a 2005 study. ZMO Law PLLC attorney Tess Cohen is currently working to prevent Tracy McCarter from becoming another statistic.

While on the campaign trail, Alvin Bragg tweeted support for Tracy McCarter and claimed that “prosecuting a domestic violence survivor who acted in self-defense is unjust.” However, Bragg’s office has yet to drop the charges against McCarter. Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma and Tess Cohen are working to support McCarter’s defense team as they prepare for trial.

ZMO Law PLLC attorneys Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma and Tess Cohen have been working to support the impressive defense team behind Tracy McCarter for the past year. As described in Dr. Uche Blackstock’s opinion piece in today’s Daily News, Tracy is a victim of domestic violence, wrongfully accused of murder.

“I did 26 and a half years for a crime I did not commit,” client James Pugh, said on the stand while being questioned by Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma. ZMO Law PLLC is currently working to exonerate Pugh after he was wrongfully convicted for murder in 1994.

Twenty eight years after he was wrongfully convicted, ZMO Law client James Pugh took the stand for the first time to explain what happened: “In some ways this is the most important day of Jimmy Pugh’s life,” Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma shared with News Channel 4 in Buffalo.

Three bills aiming to reduce mass incarceration in New York were introduced in the state Senate in January. Tess Cohen, a ZMO Law PLLC attorney, spoke with Law360 about the bills explaining: “These reforms are really about restoring discretion back to judges, and restoring discretion in a way that reflects what we’ve come to learn about when people commit crimes, why they commit crimes and how we can prevent them from committing crimes in the future.”

ZMO Law PLLC attorney Tess Cohen moderated the New York City Bar Association’s panel about ways to end mass incarceration in New York, which featured Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York State Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie.

Amid backlash against policies outlined in his “First Day Memo,” Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg sent around an update that appears to reverse some of his previous stances. ZMO Law attorney Tess Cohen told the New York Times the changes are “more symbolic than substantive.”

ZMO Law client Michael Avenatti, who represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her claims against the defeated former president, seeks $94 million in compensation for harsh conditions at the now-closed Metropolitan Correctional Center. “They treated him very differently than anyone else in prison,” explained Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma. “Once they had him in custody, they held him in a unit for violent criminals and terrorists.”

Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma spoke with Reuters about the potential for a new trial for Ghislaine Maxwell in the wake of the potential juror misconduct. “Just because you’re a victim of sexual assault does not mean you can’t sit on a jury. Just because you lie about that does not mean she was denied a fair trial,” he explained.

Incoming New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg issued a day-one policy memo to his staff directing them to help people who are arrested in Manhattan, not imprison them. ZMO Law PLLC attorney Tess Cohen told the New York Times: “He’s thinking about this in terms of not letting them go, but letting them go into a program that will address the reasons why they committed this violent crime.”

“[Maxwell] could fight hard at sentencing,” suggested Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, when speaking with Metro UK about Ghislaine Maxwell’s options are following her guilty verdict on December 29th, 2021.

“The circumstances are difficult but everything he said today made perfect sense, they all fit together,” said Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, about Dannemora escapee David Sweat’s testimony. ZMO Law PLLC is currently fighting to exonerate James Pugh–and Sweat gave breathtaking testimony implicating the police detetctive who investigated the case.

With the prosecution’s case now rested in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, it appears her defense will continue their focus on the manipulation and motivation of her accusers. While speaking with Reuters, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma wondered whether Maxwell herself will take the stand, arguing the “only real counter to that is (Maxwell’s) coming back and saying ‘no, I didn’t intend that’.”

David Sweat, the cellmate of infamous Dannemora escapee Richard Matt, testifies in Buffalo on behalf of ZMO Law client James Pugh, who was wrongfully convicted of a 1993 murder. Sweat said that Matt admitted to the murder of Deborah Meindl and that he plotted it with the detective later assigned to investigate it. Attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma and Tess Cohen are fighting to exonerate James Pugh, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 26 years.

Ghislaine Maxwell‘s defense team faces a tough challenge in their upcoming trial in the Southern District of New York. Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma shared his thoughts with Reuters about some of the risks: “Victim shaming doesn’t work especially now in 2021. You have to show the utmost empathy in my opinion to people who have been victimized.”

Russian state press covers sentencing of ZMO Law client Aleksandr Zhukov, who was convicted after jury trial of fraudulently selling automated programmatic ad traffic on the internet.

After a 2018 DNA review revealed James Pugh’s DNA was not present at the scene of the murder he was convicted of, the Buffalo DA’s office began reinvesigating the case. But when two assistant DAs concluded that it was likely that celebrity criminal Richard Matt was responsible and that Mr. Pugh and his co-defendant had been wrongfully convicted, they were removed from the case. Now, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, Tess Cohen, and the ZMO Law PLLC team are fighting for a full investigation into what really happened to Deborah Meindl in 1993.