NYSDA Sets Up Web Page on Internet ================================== NYSDA recently became one of the first criminal defense organizations to join information technology and criminal defense advocacy to establish a criminal defense Web site on the World Wide Web, the fastest growing segment of the Internet. With the explosion of interest in the information superhighway and the availability of easy to use Web browsers, Web pages have become the premier vehicle for providing 24-hour access information services and resources. The Internet address (http://www.nysda.org) was made official on September 15th. The Web site will not only provide Association members and defense lawyers with immediate and direct access to the Association's resources, it will serve as a forum to educate the public on the importance of the right to counsel and the need for quality defense representation. The Web page will be expanded and regularly updated. The page now provides general information about NYSDA, its function and services, association and defender news, and a calendar of criminal defense training events. Additionally, with the powerful hypertext capabilities of the Web, NYSDA's Website can point to other legal information resource sites on the Internet of interest to defense practitioners. In the future, additional pages will be constructed to enable members and public defense lawyers to search the store of information in the Association's Backup Center. NYSDA Holds 28th Annual Meeting =============================== On September 22-23, 1995, the Defenders Association held its 28th Annual Meeting and Conference in Albany. Training topics at the program included an update of the Court of Appeals decisions, handling judicial misconduct, competency and special issues when representing the mentally ill, cross-examination of a child witness, hot issues in DWI cases, trial advocacy after the jury charge, medical and anatomic aspects of child sex abuse, taking advantage of early release mechanisms, habeas corpus reform and beachhead representation in capital cases. At Friday's luncheon, defenders heard from Paul Shechtman, New York State's Director of Criminal Justice, concerning the governor's legislative and budget agendas for criminal justice for the upcoming year. Two important award presentations were made at the meeting. First, the Defenders Association presented to George Kendall of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund its Service of Justice Award for his outstanding work for equal justice to the poor. Also given were the New York State Bar Association Indigent Criminal Defender Denison Ray Awards established to recognize extraordinary commitments to providing zealous and skilled legal representation for low- income and disadvantaged clients. The Denison Ray awards were presented to Thomas Angell of the Dutchess County Public Defender Office and Allen Farbman of the New York County Office of the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society. The keynote address at the awards ceremony was presented by New York Capital Defender Kevin Doyle. NYSDA Beta Tests Its Public Defense Case Management System ========================================================== For the past year, NYSDA has been in the process of developing and programming a Case Management System (CMS) for public defense offices. The system is designed to easily store, track and retreive client and case-related information. In addition to providing valuable case data for litigation purposes, the system will dramatically improve the quantity and quality of caseload and dispositional data currently being collected by defender offices. In 1993, NYSDA, working with defender offices across the state, prepared a design document setting forth the specifications for the CMS. Based on that design document, NYSDA is finalizing the development of a beta version of the CMS. The system is written in Powerbuilder with a Watcom database engine using client-server technology. Two public defense offices, the Monroe County Public Defender Office and the Schenectady County Public Defender Office, have agreed to serve as beta test sites. In September 1995, the CMS beta version was installed in the Monroe County Public Defender Office for testing. It is anticipated that in the next year, NYSDA will receive additional funding to debug, refine and finalize the system and develop a production version. Kevin Doyle Named Capital Defender ================================== After an extensive national search, the Capitial Defender Office Board in early September named Kevin Doyle as New York's Capital Defender. Prior to coming to New York, Doyle was with the Alabama Capital Representation Resource Center for five years where he represented death row inmates and capital defendants in state and federal post-conviction, and at trial. He has served as Acting Capital Defender since his hiring in June. Two Reports Demonstrate Growing Racial Disparity in Sentencing ============================================================== According to a new study by The Sentencing Project, nearly one in three, or 32.2%, of African American males between the ages of 20-29 is under criminal justice supervision_either behind bars, or on probation or parole, at an estimated cost of $6 billion a year. The report also found that African-American females have increased their rate of supervision by 78% for the five year period of 1989-1994. The study, "Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later," was authored by Marc Mauer and Tracy Huling. It is a five-year follow-up to a 1990 study. The report shows that drug policies, not increases in crime, are the most important factor in the rise of in minority incarcerations. While African Americans constitute 13% of monthly drug users, they represent 35% of arrests for drug possession, 55% of convictions, and 74% of prison sentences. The authors of the report recommend a set of policies focusing on treatment and prevention to reverse these trends which they predict will continue to worsen over the next several years. A related study conducted by The Tennessean found that blacks get prison sentences about 10% longer than whites for similar federal crimes. The study examined all 80,000 federal court convictions from 1992 to 1993, comparing cases where the seriousness of the crime and criminal histories were equal. The Sentencing Project's study can be purchased from The Sentencing Project, (202) 628-0871, for $8.