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 to NYC Mayor and NYS Governor: Banishment is Not Good Public Policy
On April 8, 2019, OAD joined forces with Appellate Advocates, the Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, the Center for Appellate Litigation, the Center for Community Alternatives, the Legal Aid Society, the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, New York County Defender Services, and the Sex Law Policy Center in a letter urging Mayor DeBlasio and Governor…
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Indictment Dismissed
On April 26, 2019, in People v. Taylor, the Appellate Division dismissed the indictment of an OAD client after finding an “unreasonably long” delay in sentencing. The Court held that the prosecution “offer[ed] no excuse for more than one year of the delay in defendant’s sentencing, a period that began when the prosecution received actual…
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OAD Joins NYC Defenders in Urging Accuracy and Transparency in DNA Testing and Analysis
On February 15, 2019, OAD joined with New York City indigent and post-conviction defense providers to urge the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to conduct a transparent and collaborative review to determine whether and to what extent a controversial method for evaluating DNA mixtures has been used in New York City criminal cases. You…
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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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