The Criminal Defense Practice played a major role in the representation of clients eligible for re-sentencing as a result of the reform of the Rockefeller drug laws. Major law firms worked with staff to provide pro bono assistance.

The special unit handling capital cases was phased out after a portion of the State’s death penalty law was struck down. Prisoners’ Rights Project staff litigated a major class action challenging the pattern of correction staff brutality in the City’s jail system.