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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
AD1 Reverses OAD Client’s Conviction: Cumulative Errors Deprived Right to a Fair Trial
In People v. Ortiz, the First Department reversed Mr. Ortiz’s conviction because numerous errors—including the improper admission of testimony about cell-site data by an unqualified lay witness—deprived Mr. Ortiz of his right to a fair trial. The decision is available here: http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2019/2019_00221.htm Mr. Ortiz was represented by OAD Staff Attorney, Victorien Wu.
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OAD’s 2019 Preservation Training for Trial Lawyers
On February 4, 2019, OAD Supervising Attorneys, Eunice Lee and Joe Nursey, will lead a discussion about how trial lawyers can and should preserve errors to maximize full and complete appellate review. This training will be held at: New York University Law School Room 210, Vanderbilt Hall 40 Washington Square South New York, N.Y. 6-8pm…
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OAD Alumni Directory
In honor of OAD’s 30th anniversary, we are proud to present this first-ever OAD Alumni Directory. We have listed our former staff members’ names, current place of business, and position while at OAD. As this Directory powerfully demonstrates, OAD-trained attorneys have become state and federal public defenders, scholars, policy-makers, jurists and private practitioners. OAD’s alumni…
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OAD@30
In honor of OAD’s 30th anniversary, we are sharing 30 ways that OAD makes a difference. From our courtroom success, reinvestigation project, esteemed alumni, client advocacy programs, and social services–follow along on Twitter and Facebook, or click here to see all of the ways revealed thus far! #WeRepresent #OAD@30
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Court of Appeals Dismisses Enterprise Corruption Indictment
On November 27, 2018, New York’s Court of Appeals dismissed the Enterprise Corruption indictment against OAD client, Damian Jones, finding that “the proof elicited at trial was not legally sufficient to establish the elements of defendant’s knowledge of the existence of the subject criminal enterprise and the nature of its affairs or his intent to…
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Appellate Update (November 5-16, 2018)
Second Department People v. Jahmarley Jones Reversing and remanding for a new trial for Crawford and Inoa errors. Mr. Jones was allegedly part of the S.N.O.W. gang. Two officers testified as experts based on their expertise “in the hierarchy, practices, [and] languages of the S.N.O.W. Gang and other gangs.” Both officers stated that their expertise…
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