Ted Hausman, Supervising Attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau, joined WNYC for a segment on Governor Hochul’s opportunity to grant clemency and pardons for deserving New Yorkers.

Advocates are hopeful that the new Governor will use her clemency powers more frequently than her predecessor. Andrew Cuomo only ​commuted the sentences of 24 individuals during his roughly ten years in office. The low number was especially disappointing given Cuomo’s proposal that nonprofit groups and private law firms work together on clemency applications to increase the number of appeals.

“Why set up this whole apparatus, and why have us train and recruit pro bono lawyers to do these applications if not to grant a substantial/significant number of those applications,” said Hausman.

The Legal Aid Society currently has dozens of pending clemency and pardon applications with the Governor’s office and is calling on her to act in time for the holidays.  These New Yorkers, who are disproportionately people of color, are living with the draconian consequences of past convictions and are deserving of a second chance.

Listen to the full segment below.