New York Daily News: The Bronx Defenders’ Justine Olderman in a Letter to the Editor

The Bronx Defenders Managing Director of the Criminal Defense Practice, Justine Olderman, is featured in New York Daily News’s ‘Voice of the People for August 13, 2014’ in a letter to the editor responding to the unfortunate repercussions in a recent incident of a Bronx Judge barring an assistant district attorney from the courtroom for failing to present important evidence for the defense:

Tainted Justice

Bronx: Investigating Judge John Wilson’s chiding of a Bronx prosecutor for withholding favorable evidence is a mistake (“Judge-ment day,” Aug. 8). Instead, we should be focusing on the misguided notion that prosecutors are appropriate gatekeepers of exculpatory material and are untainted by their adversarial role when deciding what evidence helps prove a person’s innocence. New York must change the law to require open file discovery. Until then, better training, supervision and vigilance are necessary. But when that fails, as it did here, judges like Wilson must be empowered to take action. He had every right to be outraged — the real problem is that nobody else seems to be. Justine Olderman,The Bronx Defenders

To read the original letter to the editor, click here.