The Office of the Appellate Defender (OAD)
is one of New York City’s oldest providers of appellate representation to poor people convicted of felonies, the City’s second oldest institutional indigent defense office, and a national model of effective, innovative, and holistic defense representation.
OAD'S MISSION
OAD strives to ensure that poor people convicted of felonies receive full and equal access to justice by providing exceptional appellate representation, improving the quality of indigent defense representation through education and training, and advocating for systemic reform of New York City’s criminal justice system.
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OAD NEWS
OAD mourns the loss of an unwavering champion
The Office of the Appellate Defender (OAD) is saddened to learn of the passing of Roy Reardon. Roy was a founding member of the Board of Directors and served for 31 years. In the early years, Roy used his considerable stature in the New York legal community to help OAD develop and build relationships with the bench…
Read More Appellate Division: Prosecutor’s Jury Selection Improperly Based on Dubious Explanations & Stereotypes
On June 29, 2021, in People v. Murray, the Appellate Division reversed the convictions of Dexter Murray, an OAD client, finding that the prosecutor at his trial exercised her peremptory jury challenges in a racially discriminatory manner. In the landmark decision Batson v. Kentucky (1986), the United States Supreme Court made clear that it is…
Read More OAD Alumni Eunice C. Lee Confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
On Saturday, August 7, 2021, the United States Senate voted to confirm Eunice Lee for a judgeship on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Eunice was an exemplary staff and supervising attorney at the Office of the Appellate Defender for over two decades, and we are so incredibly proud of her as she takes this next step to ensure equal justice under law.
Read More The Office of the Appellate Defender (OAD), ALAA Announce Recognition of Staff Union
January 25, 2021 Today, the Office of the Appellate Defender recognized the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – UAW Local 2325 as the collective bargaining representative of its workers. OAD represents individuals experiencing poverty, who are predominantly Black and Brown and have shouldered the burden and trauma of racism, mass incarceration, over-policing, over-criminalization, and anti-Black…
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Caprice R. Jenerson Selected as the President & Attorney-in-Charge for the Office of the Appellate Defender
The Board of Directors of the Office of the Appellate Defender (OAD) is proud to announce today that it has selected Caprice R. Jenerson to be OAD’s next President and Attorney-In-Charge, effective December 1, 2020. Ms. Jenerson comes to OAD after serving as the Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer and Director of the Pro Bono…
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On Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade …
The Office of the Appellate Defender, Inc. stands in solidarity with the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tony McDade. We support the protestors in New York City, across the country and throughout the world. We share their outrage at the seemingly endless list of black victims of police and vigilante violence.…
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