The VOCAL-NY CRU is building a base of directly impacted people and developing them to lead our fight to both change the narratives around mass incarceration and advance concrete policy wins at the local, state and federal levels to decrease the number of people currently incarcerated as well as the number of people who come […]
2025 VOCAL-NY Civil Rights Union Platform Read More »
Nick Encalada-Malinowski, the civil rights campaign director for VOCAL-NY, a grassroots organization, said the bill would have removed various barriers for folks who got their wrongful conviction cases dismissed on procedural or technical grounds. The bill, he said, would have given them a chance to get their cases heard on the merits. “The problem of
“Gov. Hochul’s failure to sign the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act only shows that she believes that innocent people should be in prison,” Roger Clark, who leads the activist group VOCAL-NY, said in a statement. “There’s no excuse for her not to sign this bill.” “We will be back in Albany in January to continue our
Common Dreams: NY Governor Hochul Vetoes Wrongful Conviction, Immigrant Rights Bills Read More »
CONTACT: Nick Malinowski-Encalada, nick@vocal-ny.org HOCHUL BLOCKS JUSTICE: VOCAL-NY STATEMENT ON NEW YORK GOVERNOR VETO OF THE CHALLENGING WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS ACT NEW YORK — In response to Governor Hochul vetoing The Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act – legislation championed by VOCAL-NY leaders, elected officials in the Senate and Assembly and New York State voters, VOCAL-NY released the
Inaction on this bill is a policy choice to deny wrongfully convicted people the chance to present evidence that shows their innocence. New York can do better than Justice Thomas’s vision of injustice. Read More
Criminal justice advocates lauded the new poll as evidence Hochul should sign the bill. “This polling shows definitively what we’ve been saying for years: passing the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act is both good policy and good politics,” Nick Encalada-Malinowski, civil rights campaign director at VOCAL-NY, said in a statement. “The legislature has done its part
City & State: Poll: New Yorkers support Wrongful Convictions Act Read More »
CONTACT: Mariah McGough, Mariah@vocal-ny.org VOCAL-NY APPLAUDS DISMISSAL OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS TIED TO CONVICTED NYPD OFFICERS; CALLS ON ASSEMBLY TO PASS CHALLENGING WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS ACT Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Dismissed Over 300 Cases Brought by NYPD Officers Convicted of Crimes Related to Their Work NYS Assembly Will Come Back Into Session to Discuss Remaining Legislation Including
VOCAL-NY community leader Roger Clark says the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act would help him clear his name. “If it becomes law today, it will simply open up the door for me to get back into court [to] have a hearing, get discovery and—after my lawyers look through everything—have a long conversation about what’s the best
“I was bullied into pleading guilty to something that I didn’t do and that conviction has had a negative impact on my life,” Eileen Maher, a community leader at VOCAL-NY, said in a statement. “It’s not right that now I have no recourse to vacate the conviction even if I can now prove that I
GOTHAMIST: NY lawmakers reinvigorate push to upend wrongful convictions: Read More »
