What's New
I often say that our clients come to us on the worst day of their lives, the day they are arrested, or learned that a loved one was arrested and may be separated from them for a very long time. As the world faces a health crisis whose proportions remain unknown, the distress of being a criminal defendant is harder than it ever was. Jails and prisons are even more dangerous than usual and even a short period of confinement could be deadly. In the face of this, we are here to help.
But it is not business as usual. The courts are on very limited operations. Most of our appearances have been adjourned. An oral argument scheduled for tomorrow at the Second Circuit will be conducted via teleconference. Some police departments have wisely slowed the rate of arrests to avoid placing potentially infected people in detention facilities that have so far been spared. Once the virus enters a jail or prison, it seems almost certain everyone inside will get it and the vulnerable will die. If you have a loved one who is incarcerated, circumstances have changed and you must continue to advocate for their release.
Unfortunately, our main adversaries, the wise men and women at the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, have not yet come to understand that simple humanity demands that some long-term investigations wait until this crisis is over. The Federal Defenders of New York, who oversee federal indigent defense in New York City, have provided unparalleled leadership, pressing for legal access to inmates and for an end to non-emergency new arrests, but with little response so far. Click here for the Federal Defender’s letter to the courts and U.S. Attorneys.
Bottom line is that the ban is currently included in Gov. Cuomo’s annual state budget, which means passage is practically automatic unless lawmakers step up to take it out, as the City Bar urges them to do. It will create a new enforcement scheme giving the MTA discretion to ban any person adjudicated as a Level Three sex offender as well as anyone who receives three tickets from the MTA relating to sexual conduct or assault, even if they ultimately beat the tickets. Just who in the MTA will exercise this discretion is mysterious. One reason the City Bar opposes the ban is it appears to violate due process by failing to give adequate notice and an opportunity to be heard. It is also excessively punitive to the point where it will actually undermine public safety by preventing people from working, going to school, and visiting friends and family — all activities that tend to prevent criminal recidivism. The ban undermines one of America’s dearest freedoms, the freedom to travel. It will be ripe for constitutional challenge from the outset. A similar ban proposed last year was voted down amid vocal opposition from criminal defense groups.
The past week was one of extraordinary revelations relating to foreign policy and corruption at the top of the government of the United States. The public got to see two documents, just months after they were created: first, the “TELCON” or 
