The Legal Aid Society’s Wrongful Conviction Unit (WCU) represents a client with state and federal convictions arising from the same set of circumstances: the client was cast as the ringleader of a drug distribution operation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was wrongfully convicted of committing or conspiring to commit murder and after his trial in federal court was sentenced to life plus a consecutive term of 45 years due to combined RICO and murder charges. WCU believes a compassionate release petition in federal court is the quickest way to secure his release.  

Our client has a loving family that lives in New York City and several serious health issues that New York’s Department of Corrections has continuously failed to treat. He is now 58 years old and has spent nearly half his life in prison. Although we maintain that he was wrongfully convicted, WCU’s goal is to find a way to get him out of prison earlier than the completion of a life sentence.  

The Legal Aid Society worked tirelessly on litigation to vacate our client’s state conviction, which was ultimately unsuccessful, and attempting to vacate his state conviction is a not productive means to seek release as his federal life sentence prevents it. Notably, that life sentence is specifically for conspiracy to distribute and possess heroin and cocaine base, not the firearm or murder charges, because of now-outdated mandatory minimums. As such, we believe the best way forward and in light of his eligibility and qualifications for parole in his state case, is to seek compassionate release in federal court. 

The Legal Aid Society would co-counsel with pro bono counsel on the compassionate release petition process. The investigative work for the petition should be limited to gathering letters from family and friends, obtaining records from New York State DOCCS and the Board of Parole regarding his achievements while incarcerated, his health status, and anything else the team determines would support his application. The drafting would also be fairly straightforward. Based on preliminary research, the client’s offense is a “covered offense” eligible for a sentence reduction under the First Step Act, although that reduction remains discretionary. While the judge who presides over our client’s case is not known to be sympathetic to defendants, WCU has put together a spreadsheet of every case in which the judge has sentenced someone for the same crime in a post-mandatory minimum world, which we can include in a petition to make the point that if client were being sentenced today, he would not have received as harsh a sentence.  

Our client will also be a participating member of the team as he is knowledgeable about his own case and relevant law.

The Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project (PRP) is in contact with a man who is currently incarcerated at Five Points Correctional Facility in Schenectady, New York, by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). This client has reported that he experienced medical neglect resulting in the amputation of two toes on his right foot and wishes to file a case against DOCCS to receive damages for medical neglect. This client filed a Notice of Intention to the Attorney General of the State of New York in March of 2024.  

While under the care and supervision of DOCCS, this client was diagnosed with gangrene in his foot, which resulted in two of his toes being amputated. As shown by medical records, this client filed multiple requests to be seen by medical staff, which were not taken seriously. PRP has this client’s medical records from DOCCS custody, his grievances, and disciplinary records. Our team is awaiting the arrival of his medical records from Westchester Medical Center.  

Interested counsel should be prepared to take on this matter fully as PRP does not have capacity to co-counsel. Although PRP will not be co-counseling, they are able to provide the gathered documentation and assist with the introduction of new counsel to the client. 

Our Health Law Unit seeks pro bono assistance on behalf of our client who wishes to pursue affirmative litigation against her prior employer who failed to properly notice a COBRA-qualifying event and retroactively disenrolled our client from their health insurance. These actions caused our client to be ineligible for Medicaid and left her with extensive medical debt. 

Our client worked for a New York State-run psychiatric program until October 2020 when she was terminated due to loss of funding during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our client had a self-funded health insurance plan through her job and coverage was set to end a month after her termination. Our client was approved for Medicaid once she believed her employer-provided health insurance ended. However, the New York State of Health (NYSOH) sent her notice that she could not enroll into a Medicaid managed care plan because she was still enrolled in her prior plan. Our client did, however, qualify for Medicaid fee-for-service as secondary insurance. When our client attempted to disenroll from the employer-provided plan she was told that her employer would have to terminate her coverage and that she could not do so unilaterally. Our client made numerous attempts to contact her former employer’s HR department but never received a call back. Our client needed medical attention during this time, so she continued to use her employer-provided insurance with Medicaid fee-for-service. Between 2020 and 2022, our client went a step further and confirmed her coverage by calling plan provided by her previous employer before most, if not all her doctor visits.  

In January 2023, our client called her plan before a medical appointment and was told that her former employer terminated her coverage retroactively to November 2020. Our client received a COBRA notice dated 2023 indicating that in 2020 she experienced a COBRA-qualifying event and that she would have to pay over $800/month retroactively to 2020 to receive coverage. Our client cannot afford to pay retroactively for COBRA because most, if not all, of the medical providers she saw between 2020-2022 do not accept Medicaid fee-for-service. Our client is now responsible for all doctors’ fees billed during her non-coverage period, which she cannot afford. 

Initial research by our Health Law Unit on the COBRA FAQ on the NYS Department of Financial Services website indicates that employers are supposed to send COBRA notification within 30 days of the qualifying event. Furthermore, our client was supposed to receive a COBRA letter 30 days after her job loss and not three years after the fact.  

Our Health Law Unit advocates seek pro bono co-counsel to explore what steps our client should take to address the failure of her prior employer and represent our client on the relevant advocacy and potential litigation.