In 2015, CUNY School of Law Professor Steve Zeidman, Co-Director of the Defenders Clinic, received an email from a lawyer working with Judy Clark. Ms. Clark was serving a sentence of 75-years to life for her role as the getaway driver in the 1981 Brinks robbery that resulted in the deaths of two police officers and a Brinks guard. The email, which was sent to many criminal law professors, asked if anyone would be ready, willing, and able to to take on Ms. Clark’s quest for clemency from then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. Zeidman and his team at CUNY School of Law Defenders Clinic volunteered to assist Ms. Clark, and met with her at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. After that meeting, Ms. Clark and the Defenders Clinic team agreed to work together in pursuit of clemency.
As the team prepared a clemency application, it soon became apparent that there were no legal organizations devoted to clemency advocacy on behalf of people serving life and long-term sentences. In New York State alone, approximately 9,000 people are serving life sentences and face the very real prospect of dying in prison. While there are various Innocence Projects for people seeking to prove that they were wrongly convicted, and there are several appellate organizations that assist people with legal challenges to their convictions, there was no organization that worked to free people who were trying to extricate themselves from the massive sentences that are routinely meted out in American courts (and that are unknown to any other western industrialized nation). From this vast need, the Second Look Project: Beyond Guilt was born.
Zeidman and the Clinic were able to win clemency for Ms. Clark in 2016 and as a result word of the Defenders Clinic clemency work spread across New York prisons. To date, the Clinic has received over 2,300 requests for assistance from people inside and their families. In just the past few years the Clinic has worked with almost 150 people facing what has been called “death by incarceration,” and has helped 55 come home via clemency, parole, and various litigation efforts. In his last week in office, former Governor Andrew Cuomo commuted the sentences of ten people — seven were clients of the Second Look Project: Beyond Guilt.
Our Staff
The work of the Second Look Project would not be possible without the efforts and passion of its staff, partners, and advisory board.
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Adjunct Professor, Defenders ClinicBahar Ansari is a public defender with the Legal Aid Society and an adjunct professor in the Defenders Clinic at CUNY Law School. Bahar graduated from CUNY Law School in 2006, where she served as a Project Equity Fellow and student attorney in the Defenders Clinic. After graduation, Bahar joined the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice representing children accused of misdemeanors and felonies in Bronx Family Court. In 2010, she transferred to the Criminal Defense Practice and was promoted to supervising attorney in 2019. Bahar has proudly represented over 3000 New Yorkers and strives to litigate every case with passion and creativity.
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Co-Director, Defenders Clinic, Director of the Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession, Faculty Director of the W. Haywood Burns Chair in Human & Civil Rights Program, and Professor of LawNicole Smith Futrell is a Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Defenders Clinic. She also serves as Faculty Director of both the Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession and the W. Haywood Burns Chair in Human and Civil Rights Program. Professor Smith Futrell’s career has been dedicated to advocating for the rights of those who have been marginalized by the criminal legal system. In her clinical practice, she and her students represent clients in a variety of criminal defense-related contexts, including state court misdemeanor cases, parole and clemency petitions, wrongful conviction claims, and legal advocacy related to conviction history. Read Nicole Smith Futrell's full bio. -
Senior Advisor, Second Look ProjectLorenzo Johnson is thrilled to be working as a Senior Adviser for CUNY Law School’s Second Look Project. In 1995, when Pennsylvania police told Mr. Johnson that they believed he had murdered someone in Harrisburg the previous night, he was incredulous. He explained he had been in New York City the previous night with people who could vouch for him. Nevertheless, the police and prosecutors tried Mr. Johnson, winning a conviction and sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The conviction was based on such thin and circumstantial evidence that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals—which only decided his case after he had already served 16 years in prison—vacated his conviction on the grounds there was insufficient evidence to convict. Mr. Johnson lived as a free man for the next 148 days until the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Third Circuit, without briefing or argument, and reinstated the conviction. It took another six years before new evidence demonstrated that Mr. Johnson had been telling the truth and that prosecutors had withheld critical exculpatory evidence. Even when this new evidence was finally released, prosecutors threatened to fight the case if he didn’t agree to a nolo contendere plea. Against his deepest moral misgivings, Mr. Johnson finally agreed and since leaving prison—after 22 years behind bars for a wrongful conviction—has fought tirelessly to help the many others who have been wrongfully convicted find the justice they deserve. -
Senior Advisor, Second Look ProjectGreg Mingo’s original sentence was 50 years to life and he received clemency on August 23, 2021, and was released on September 16, 2021. He served over 40 years for a wrongful conviction. Since coming home, he has worked as a Senior Advisor for CUNY Law School’s Second Look Project doing clemency applications, as a Community Leader for Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), volunteers his time building transitional housing for Hudson-Link for Higher Education in Prison project, and is a Senior Advisor for “It’s About Time,” a collaborative effort for five organizations focused on promoting clemency for people serving life or long-term sentences. -
Substitute Assistant Professor of Law, Defenders ClinicErin Tomlinson ’10 is an alumna of CUNY Law and the Defenders Clinic. Upon graduation, she worked as a public defender in the Bronx with the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice. Erin has also represented people on direct and collateral appeal, and in SORA hearings and appeals, as an appellate public defender at Appellate Advocates and, most recently, at the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau. -
Legal Fellow, Second Look ProjectCalla Wilson-Traisman ’19 is thrilled to be joining the Second Look Project as a legal fellow. While in law school, Calla interned with the Federal Defender in the District of Oregon advocating for people on Oregon’s death row, and worked as a law clerk with the Peter Cicchino Youth Project in New York City. She was also a volunteer with the Parole Preparation Project and a student attorney in the Defenders Clinic. After graduation, she worked as a trial attorney at public defender offices in New Mexico and Missouri where she enjoyed litigating her cases with zeal and coming up with creative dispositions. Calla is passionate about advocating for the rights of people who are ensnared in the criminal legal system, and dreams of a world where the basic humanity and dignity of all beings is respected. -
Co-Director, Defenders Clinic, Director of The Second Look Project and Professor of LawProfessor Steven Zeidman is the Co-Director of the Second Look Project: Beyond Guilt and the Defenders Clinic at CUNY School of Law. A graduate of Duke University School of Law, he is a former staff attorney and supervisor at the Legal Aid Society. He has taught at Fordham, Pace, and New York University School of Law and was awarded the NYU Alumni Association's Great Teacher Award in 1997 and CUNY’s Outstanding Professor of the Year honor in 2011. Professor Zeidman is a member of the Appellate Division’s Indigent Defense Organization Oversight Committee and the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section Council, and serves on the Board of Directors of Prisoners' Legal Services and the Parole Preparation Project. Read Professor Steve Zeidman's full bio.
Advisory Board
- Prof. Lisa Armstrong
- Judy Clark
- Julia Kuan, Esq.
- Alfonzo Riley
- Prof. David Singleton
- Earl Ward, Esq.