Will the DA’s office work to overturn previous convictions people are currently serving time for? Not meant to undermine this incredibly progressive action.
It's barely scratching the surface of justice reform, however. The laws still remain on the books; they're just selectively choosing not to enforce them at the moment. More importantly, they're doing nothing to reverse the thousands (possibly millions) of prior convictions.
This is rewarding the people who skipped out on facing prosecution. It's a pragmatic move, and a tiny step in the right direction, but the people most hurt by these insane laws are the ones who did the right thing, faced their charges, and are now sitting in jail or had their lives damaged in ways small and large. They deserve relief far more than the people who managed to avoid getting convicted in the first place.
..that never would've happened if Cuomo didn't feel real heat from Cynthia Nixon.
0:https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/governor/ny/ne...
He's trying to run up the score to make it look like he has a mandate. If Nixon gets anything close to what Teachout got four years ago, it'll look bad for his 2020 presidential run.
The New York State political machine is incredibly corrupt and interconnected. And Cuomo himself is more powerful and influential at all levels of state government (which includes country-level positions) than any governor since, well, his father. It's really not unreasonable to suspect he had a hand in this.
What Cuomo wants, Cuomo gets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_County_District_Att...
It’s insufficient that these proceedings are dropped when others will continue to serve out sentences for equivalent crimes.
In this case, where the DA has made a blanket pronouncement that the office is not going to prosecute minor drug possession charges, I think there is a stronger argument to apply that retroactively. It seems to me like the right thing to do. But that would need to be done by a judge or perhaps the governor, not the DA. And you'd have to look at each case. There are really very few people serving significant time for simple possession. There's usually large quantities, intent to distribute, weapons or violence, prior offenses, or some other aggravating factors.
The Governor could though.