TOMORROW: Death Penalty After Troy Davis Event; other events this week; internship opportunities, and more!

[Lauren Gottesman]

Hi NLG,

Please see below for details regarding tomorrow night's event NLG is co-sponsoring with PILSA and ACS: The State of the Death Penalty After Troy Davis. Please note the time change - the event now starts tomorrow at 7:10pm in Room 206. Also included in this email is info re: other upcoming events of interest and two summer internship opportunities!

1) THE STATE OF THE DEATH PENALTY AFTER TROY DAVIS 

*Please note the TIME CHANGE** - Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13th at 7:10 PM, Room 206. Come hear five esteemed panelists discuss the state of the death penalty in the US following the execution of Troy Davis this past fall.

2) Symposium: Ripples of Injustice: The Impact of Criminal Justice Policies on Minority Communities. A Justice Action Center Symposium. Friday, April 27, 2012. New York Law School. The New York Law School Justice Action Center's Racial Justice Project and the Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union are pleased to co-sponsor a one-day conference in New York City for advocates, organizers, litigators, researchers, and individuals to explore the impact of criminal justice policies and practices on minority communities.

3) All out to Occupy the U.S. Justice Department on April 24, 2012! Join Danny Glover, M1 of Dead Prez, Frances Fox Piven, Normal Finkelstein and others in a non-violent civil disobedience action or join our large-scale, spirited rally at the US Department of Justice, which will mark Mumia Abu-Jamal's 58th birthday. Your pledge to engage in an act of civil disobedience (CD) is critical to ensuring news coverage of the case of this imprisoned, radical journalist and our broader demands. If you cannot commit to CD, pledge to be at the demonstration.Pledge to Occupy the Justice Department, download the flyer, and get more information: http://occupythejusticedepartment.com/.

4) OCS's weekly Public Interest Pizza Lunch: POVERTY LAW & ELDER LAW. This Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 12:00 - 1:15 p.m., Room 303
An informal lunch with David Silva, Director of the Evelyn Frank Legal Resources Program at Selfhelp Community Services, Inc., a non-profit that provides housing, case management, senior centers, and health care services for 18,000 seniors each year. David provides training, advice, and representation on matters involving Medicare (including the Part D drug program), Medicaid homecare and financial eligibility, SSI/SSD, housing, and planning for incapacity. Before joining Selfhelp, David was a Legal Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, working on election reform and media consolidation issues.  He graduated from Cardozo School of Law in 2005. RSVP via Symplicity.

5) The Florence Project is looking for Summer interns to work directly with detained adults or unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings under the supervision of a staff attorney and/or the legal director. 4 positions are based in the Florence, AZ office and support our Florence and Eloy programs for adults and 1 position is based in our Phoenix satellite office supporting our work with unaccompanied immigrant children.  Fluency in Spanish is required. The Project provides subsidized housing in Florence if needed and assistance finding subsidized housing in Phoenix for the children's intern.   Please send a cover letter, resume and 2 references to Tally Kingsnorth, Pro Bono Coordinator, at tking...@firrp.org<mailto:tking...@firrp.org>. Applicants will be interviewed by telephone and positions will be filled on a rolling basis so you are encouraged to apply early. See #5 below for all the details.

6) The NLG Mass Defense Coordinator is looking for people with Bengali and Urdu language skills to proof-read the Know Your Rights booklets they have translated before they are printed. A lawyer, legal worker, or law student would be the ideal person to do this. The Committee can pay for proofreading services! Please contact Abi Hassen, Mass Defense Coordinator, if you are available/interested: Abi Hassen <a...@nlg.org>

7) Join the Left Forum for the The New Jim Crow Panel Event: THIS Sunday, March 18 from 10 am to 12 noon (room W623): a panel discussion on the New Jim Crow with activists organizing around mass incarceration in NYC--with a goal of using this meeting to discuss creating a city-wide coalition. Followed by a panel event: Attica is All of Us, at 3pm, to remember the Attica Rebellion, honor those who died during the retaking of the facility, and fight back against mass incarceration and the racial caste system that our legal system causes. Both workshops are being held at the Left Forum, Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza., Room W522 , See below for more info and click here to register for the Left Forum: http://www.leftforum.org.

8) Two summer internships are still available in the Family Law Unit at Queens Legal Services—one working primarily with the HIV Advocacy Project (“HAP”) (see below) and the other primarily working with the new Matrimonial Project. Both internship positions will have some overlap with the general Family Law Unit, in doing immigration work (VAWA, T, U), attending Family and Supreme Court with attorneys, participating in the new Court Watch Project, etc. 

If interested, please email Stephanie Morin Taylor at sta...@qls.ls-nyc.org or call her at (347) 592-2294 and see all the details below.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1)
THE STATE OF THE DEATH PENALTY AFTER TROY DAVIS

**Please note the TIME CHANGE** - Tuesday, March 13th at 7:10 PM, Room 206 

(following the Lanny Breuer Event) ~ FOOD WILL BE SERVED!

Hear five esteemed panelists discuss the state of the death penalty in the US following the execution of Troy Davis this past fall.

Speakers Include:

- Muhammad U. Faridi, Chair of the NYC Bar Committee on Capital Punishment
- Jean D. Barret, Attorney for the Capital Resource Counsel Project

- Barry Butler, Chief Public Defender, State of Connecticut's Stamford/Norwalk Judicial District

- Thenjiwe Tameika McHarris, Representative from Amnesty International, Northeast Regional Office

- Lawrence Hayes, Death Row Exoneree and Co-Founder of F.A.C.E.

**Sponsored by: PILSA, ACS, NLG, and Pieper**

_____________________________________________

2)

http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/justice_action_center/annual_conferences/ripples_of_injustice

Symposium: Ripples of Injustice
The Impact of Criminal Justice Policies on Minority Communities

A Justice Action Center Symposium
Friday, April 27, 2012
New York Law School

The New York Law School Justice Action Center's Racial Justice Project and the Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union are pleased to co-sponsor a one-day conference in New York City for advocates, organizers, litigators, researchers, and individuals to explore the impact of criminal justice policies and practices on minority communities.

There has been increasing attention within the legal community on the impact of criminal justice policies—particularly harsh sentencing laws and long-term collateral consequences—on individuals who are convicted and sent to prison. But these laws do not just affect the lives of the individuals who are convicted; they have a broader social and economic impact on the people who remain in the communities that are disproportionately targeted by so-called "tough-on-crime" policies. And, given this nation's disproportionate incarceration of racial and ethnic minorities, those communities are most heavily impacted.

This conference will explore the long-term impact of criminal justice policies on the home communities, with a focus on: (1) employment and economic impact; (2) civic engagement and political power; (3) families and children; and (4) policing and public safety. In addition to four plenary sessions, the conference will feature a keynote address from Professor Paul Butler and meaningful opportunities to share ideas and strategize together.

To view the save-the-date flyer, click here.

 
CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION

This program has been approved for a maximum of nine (9) credits of continuing legal education in professional practice for both transitional and non-transitional attorneys. There is no charge for CLE.

 
REGISTRATION

Conference registration is free, but space is limited. Click here to register online now.

 
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Unless otherwise noted, all events will take place in the Auditorium, Room WA14.

7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. 
Check-in for pre-registered guests

Continental breakfast will be available.

8:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
Welcome 

• Deborah N. Archer, Professor and Director of the Racial Justice Project, New York Law School
• Dennis Parker, Director, Racial Justice Program, American Civil Liberties Union

8:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. 
Panel I: The Economic Impact of Incarceration

This panel will discuss the many ways that concentrated over-incarceration, insufficient resources to support formerly incarcerated community members, employment discrimination, and other criminal justice policies work to undermine economic development in low income communities and will explore alternative approaches that are more likely to produce better outcomes for formerly incarcerated individuals and the communities to which they return.

Attendees at this panel are eligible for 2 CLE credit in professional practice.

• Moderator: Mercer Givhan, Associate Professor, New York Law School
• Brian Roberts, Coordinator of the Institutional Services Program, Community Defender Division, DC Public Defender Service
• Glenn Martin, Vice President of Development and Public Affairs, Fortune Society
• Todd Cox, Director, Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Michael Pinard, Professor and Director, Clinical Law Program, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. 
Panel II: Political Alienation, Democratic Participation, and Civic Engagement

This panel will explore ways that harsh criminal justice policies affect the ability of impacted communities, predominantly communities of color, to participate in our country’s political and civic systems. Voting rights, census counts, legislative districting, and jury service are some of the ways that high criminal conviction rates can impact a community’s political power and representation.

Attendees at this panel are eligible for 2 CLE credits in professional practice.

• Moderator: Erika Wood, Associate Professor, New York Law School
• Ryan Haygood, Director of the Political Participation Group, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.
• Eddie Ellis, Community Justice Center
• Marc Mauer, Executive Director, The Sentencing Project
• Jeff Manza, Professor of Sociology; Department Chair, New York University
• Brenda V. Smith, Professor of Law, Washington College of Law at American University

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. 
Lunch and Keynote Speaker

Lunch will be available.

Attendees at this panel are eligible for 1 CLE credit in professional practice.

• Introduction: Dennis Parker, Director, Racial Justice Program, American Civil Liberties Union
• Paul Butler, Carville Dickinson Benson Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School

1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. 
Panel III: Youth in Transition: Criminal Justice Policies and Juvenile Offenders

Every year, almost 100,000 youth are released from the juvenile justice system. These youth are often returned to families struggling with poverty, and to communities with few supportive programs, high crime rates, and failing schools. Many face unemployment, homelessness, and challenges re-engaging with their education. This panel will address these and other unique issues that confront juveniles and their families as they re-enter the community.

Attendees at this panel are eligible for 2 CLE credit in professional practice.

• Moderator: Daniel Warshawsky, Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School
• Laurie Parise, Founding Executive Director, Youth Represent
• Gwendolyn Williams, Assistant Prosecutor / Director, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office
• James Forman, Clinical Professor of Law ,Yale Law School
• Kristin Henning, Sidley Austin-Robert D. McLean ’70 Visiting Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Professor of Law & Co-Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic, Georgetown Law
• Courtney Bowie, Senior Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. 
Panel IV: Criminal Justice and Public Safety

This panel will discuss how “tough on crime” policies, including certain immigration laws, impact the safety and security of communities, as well as the lasting impact these policies have on the relationship between members of those communities and the police.

Attendees at this panel are eligible for 2 CLE credit in professional practice.

• Moderator: Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, Associate Professor, New York Law School
• Vanita Gupta, Deputy Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union National
• Vince Warren, Executive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights
• Yolanda Vazquez, Clinical Supervisor and Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Reception to follow in the Grand Gallery

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3)

All out to Occupy the U.S. Justice Department on April 24, 2012! Spread the word far and wide!

Join Danny Glover, M1 of Dead Prez, Frances Fox Piven, Normal Finkelstein and others in a non-violent civil disobedience action or join our large-scale, spirited rally at the US Department of Justice, which will mark Mumia Abu-Jamal's 58th birthday. Your pledge to engage in an act of civil disobedience (CD) is critical to ensuring news coverage of the case of this imprisoned, radical journalist and our broader demands. If you cannot commit to CD, pledge to be at the demonstration.

 

Pledge to Occupy the Justice Department, download the flyer, and get more information:

http://occupythejusticedepartment.com/

 

On April 24, we will breath life into the old labor slogan: "an injury to one, is an injury to all." On that day we will say that we are all Mumia, we are all immigrants, we are all prisoners, we are all Bradley Manning, we are all poor, we are all Palestinian, we are all Troy Davis, we are all political prisoners, we are all Occupiers!!!

 

WE DEMAND

 

1. Release Mumia Abu-Jamal

2. End mass incarceration

3. Jobs, Education, and Health Care. NOT JAILS!

4. End solitary confinement and stop torture

5. End the racist death penalty

6. Hands off immigrants

7. Free all political prisoners

________________________________________________________

4)
What: Public Interest Pizza Lunch: POVERTY LAW & ELDER LAW
When: Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 12:00 - 1:15 p.m.
Where: Room 303
Additional Info: Join us for an informal lunch with David Silva, Director of the Evelyn Frank Legal Resources Program at Selfhelp Community Services, Inc., a non-profit that provides housing, case management, senior centers, and health care services for 18,000 seniors each year. David provides training, advice, and representation on matters involving Medicare (including the Part D drug program), Medicaid homecare and financial eligibility, SSI/SSD, housing, and planning for incapacity. Before joining Selfhelp, David was a Legal Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, working on election reform and media consolidation issues.  He graduated from Cardozo School of Law in 2005.

RSVP via Symplicity

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5) Summer Interns - Law Students

Summer interns will work directly with detained adults or unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings under the supervision of a staff attorney and/or the legal director. S/he will work directly with clients on a daily basis, conducting intake interviews, assisting with applications for relief including asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, and cancellation of removal for lawful permanent residents, and drafting legal arguments for use in immigration court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and federal court. Law student interns may also have the opportunity to represent individuals in hearings before an immigration judge under the supervision of a staff attorney.
Qualifications
The Florence Project typically hosts 5 law student interns for a 10 week period beginning in late May.  4 positions are based in our Florence office and support our Florence and Eloy programs for adults and 1 position is based in our Phoenix satellite office supporting our work with unaccompanied immigrant children.  We are seeking law students who have a demonstrated commitment to immigration issues and public interest law and enjoy working in a collaborative, high volume work environment and can work independently with significant responsibility.  Fluency in Spanish is required. Prior advocacy or academic experience in immigration law, excellent writing and interpersonal skills, and experience working with people from different cultures are strongly valued.  First year students are welcome to apply.

Our summer internship positions are unpaid.  The Project provides subsidized housing in Florence if needed and assistance finding subsidized housing in Phoenix for the children's intern.  Florence is located approximately one hour south of Phoenix and an hour and fifteen minutes north of Tucson in the middle of the Sonoran desert.  Living in this area over the summer provides many opportunities for cultural and outdoor excursions in Arizona and the border region.
Application Process
Please send a cover letter, resume and 2 references to Tally Kingsnorth, Pro Bono Coordinator, at tking...@firrp.org<mailto:tking...@firrp.org>. Applicants will be interviewed by telephone and positions will be filled on a rolling basis so you are encouraged to apply early.
The Florence Project recognizes the value of diversity in the workplace and strongly encourages applications from people of color, LGBT individuals, persons with disabilities and members of under-represented or disadvantaged communities to apply.
__________________________________________________________

6) NLG Mass Defense Coordinator looking for translators:

We have translations of our KYR booklets in Bengali and Urdu, but we
desperately need them to be proofread by somebody with legal knowledge
before we can have them printed. A lawyer, legal worker, or law student
would be the ideal person to do this.

we can pay. please contact Abi Hassen if you are available/interested: Abi Hassen <a...@nlg.org>

Abi Hassen
Mass Defense Coordinator
National Lawyers Guild
______________________________________________
7)
Campaign to End the New Jim Crow

Join us at the Left Forum for

The New Jim Crow

Join us Sunday, March 18 from 10 am to 12 noon (room W623) for a panel discussion at the Left Forum on the New Jim Crow with activists organizing around mass incarceration in NYC--with a goal of using this meeting to discuss creating a city-wide coalition. So come out if you can, and spread the word!

 

Speakers:

Michael "Justice" Caesar, VOCAL-NY

Evan Goldstein, Drug Policy Alliance

Jazz Hayden, Campaign to End the New Jim Crow

Angelo Pinto, OWS Prisoner Solidarity Subcmte & Arthur Ashe Inst.

Mia Savage, Correctional Association & the Osborne

 

**Copies of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow will be available at the workshop

With 2.4 million prisoners, the U.S. is the world's leading jailer.  This workshop will take up the mass incarceration boom as a product of a backlash against the civil rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the explosion in drug laws targeting communities of color and poor neighborhoods, as well as how the collateral consequences of the prison system has created a new Jim Crow for those communities and the formerly incarcerated.  We will also feature strategies of resistance and next steps for organizing from those most impacted by mass incarceration, including activists from the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow and those fighting felony disenfranchisement, the school-to-prison pipeline and the racists drug laws.


Attica is All of Us

Sunday, March 18 from 3 pm to 5 pm (room W522)

A workshop with:

Carlos Roche, Attica Brother; participant in the 1971 uprising 
Jazz Hayden, former Attica prisoner; Campaign to End the New Jim Crow 
Liz Fink, Attorney for the Attica Brothers 
Sarah Kunstler, civil rights lawyer 

On September 13, 1971, an uprising by prison inmates of the Attica Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison located in western New York, ended in the bloodiest prison confrontation in United States history. Five days earlier, thirteen hundred prisoners had rebelled, taken over the prison, and held forty guards hostage, calling for improvements in living conditions and medical care, religious freedom, and educational and training opportunities. The negotiations failed and state police and corrections officers seized the prison; in the course of taking it over they slaughtered thirty-nine individuals, including ten hostages. The rebellion may have brought awareness to prison conditions, but how far have we really come in four decades? Our prison population has grown from about 300,000 in 1970 to more than 2.4 million today. The majority of young black men in major U.S. cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Join us in remembering the Attica Rebellion, honoring those who died during the retaking of the facility, and fighting back against mass incarceration and the racial caste system that our legal system causes.
 

Both workshops at the Left Forum
Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza.
Room W522 
Trains: 4,5,6 to Brooklyn Bridge; R to City Hall

Info/register for the Left Forum at http://www.leftforum.org
Conference: March 16-18, 2012

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8)

We have two positions still open in the Family Law Unit—one working primarily with our HIV Advocacy Project (“HAP”) (see below) and the other primarily working with our new Matrimonial Project. 

 

Here is a brief outline of what HAP is working on this year:

 

1. HRA/HASA gender identity and expression discrimination cases under city, state and federal law.
2. Rental discrimination cases for people living with HIV
3. Far Rockaway Initiative
4. Jamaica Initiative
5. Western Queens Initiative

 (The initiatives are all based on the needs of clients in those specific neighborhoods.  We are partnering with community based organizations for client representation, intake, and education (trainings and workshops).)

 

The Matrimonial Project is getting a brand-new clinic off the ground, assisting Queens residents in filing their own divorces.  The intern will be responsible for conducting intake, drafting uncontested divorce documents, filing and obtaining copies of documents from the Supreme Court.

 

In addition, both internship positions will have some overlap with the general Family Law Unit, in doing immigration work (VAWA, T, U), attending Family and Supreme Court with attorneys, participating in the new Court Watch Project, etc. 

 

If any students are interested, please email me at sta...@qls.ls-nyc.org or call me at (347) 592-2294.  I can guarantee that all interns will gain lots of experience and will have fun in the process.  We really aim to work with each individual student in attaining their individual goals. 

 

Thanks!

 

Stephanie Morin Taylor

Deputy Director, Family Law Unit and DV Law & Advocacy Project

Queens Legal Services