Steve Zeidman, Professor, Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, has spent the last 25 years working in the area of criminal defense. A graduate of Duke University School of Law, he is a highly-respected trial lawyer and former supervisor at the Legal Aid Society. He began his teaching career with substantive and clinical courses and has taught at Fordham, Pace, and New York University. Professor Zeidman was awarded the NYU Alumni Association’s Great Teacher Award in 1997 and CUNY’s Outstanding Professor of the Year honor in 2011. Prior to joining the CUNY faculty in 2002, he was Executive Director of the Fund for Modern Courts, a nonpartisan, statewide court reform organization.

Professor Zeidman is a member of the Appellate Division’s Indigent Defense Organization Oversight Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Prisoners’ Legal Services. He was recently appointed by District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin to an Advisory Council created to help implement her remedial order in the Floyd v. City of New York stop-and-frisk litigation. He has also served on several statewide commissions, including the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services and the Jury Project. Professor Zeidman was a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for the Judiciary in the Bloomberg and Giuliani administrations. He has made numerous presentations on a range of issues, including judicial selection, hearsay, and the ethical dimensions of the effective assistance of counsel. His published work has been cited in numerous law reviews and journals, as well as by the New York Court of Appeals.

Selected Op-Eds

People Age Out of Crime: Prison Sentences Should Reflect That, TIME, September 9, 2022

Whose Case it it Anyway? Florida v. Nixon and McCoy v. Louisiana: Pro-Defendant or Pro-Government, ABA Criminal Justice Magazine, Summer 2022

Mass Incarceration and Broken Promises, NY Daily News, June 24, 2022

Governor Hochul Misses the Mark in First Clemency Considerations, Leaving Despair, Gotham Gazette, January 6, 2022

Say Their Names-People Deserving Clemency, Gotham Gazette, December 23, 2021

Dying Behind Bars: The N.Y. Way, Daily News, October 27, 2021

Grant more Clemencies, Governor: Cuomo’s Using too Little of His Power to Decarcerate, Too Late, Daily News, August 22, 2021

The New York Commission on Judicial Nomination Must Get The Next One Right, Gotham Gazette, August 12, 2021

Let All New Yorkers Vote for Manhattan DA, NY Daily News, June 10, 2021

The New York Senate Should Reject Cuomo’s Nominees to the State’s High Court, Slate, June 1, 2021

Remake New York’s Highest Court, NY Daily News, May 7, 2021

The Governor’s High Court, Gotham Gazette, April 22, 2021

New York’s Prisons are a Time Bomb of Fear, Isolation and Despair, Syracuse Post-Standard, February 4, 2021

Governor, How About Clemency,? NY Daily News, November 28, 2020

Sitting Ducks: COVID Threatens Many NYS Prisoners; Why Won’t Cuomo Grant More Clemency,? NY Daily News, September 13, 2020

Toppling Statues, and Prisons, Gotham Gazette, July 14, 2020

Life and Death at the Stroke of the Governor’s Pen, Gotham Gazette, June 17, 2020

Shatter ‘Broken Windows’ Policing, NY Daily News, June 10, 2020

Coronavirus Makes Reducing New York Prison Population a Matter of Life and Death, Syracuse Post-Standard, May 28, 2020

Legislature Must Address the COVID Threat to People in Prison, City Limits, May 27, 2020

The Governor’s Clemency Negligence, Gotham Gazette, April 29, 2020

If Ever There Were a Time for Clemency, It’s Now, City Limits, April 15, 2020

Think Bigger on Clemencies: Coronavirus, Prisons and Public Health, NY Daily News, March 28, 2020

What’s Really Behind Efforts to Reform Bail Reform? A Familiar Theme, Gotham Gazette, March 11, 2020

Judicial Discretion Isn’t a Fix for Bail Reform; Bail Reform was the Answer to Judicial Discretion, Gotham Gazette, February 14, 2020

Cuomo’s Clemency and Cruelty of False Hope, Gotham Gazette, January 9, 2020

Tis the Season for Clemency: Gov. Cuomo Should Let More New Yorkers Out of Prison Now, NY Daily News, December 17, 2019

Close Attica – and Build No New Prisons, Gotham Gazette, November 6, 2019

Mass Incarceration and Remorse, Gotham Gazette, October 22, 2019

Appealing Denials of Parole Release in New York State: A Guide to Filing Administrative Appeals and Article 78s (with Michelle L. Lewin & Martha Rayner), September 2019

Sentenced to Death by Incarceration in New York State Prison, Gotham Gazette, September 21, 2019

Depraved Indifference and Second Look Sentencing, Gotham Gazette, August 27, 2019

The Year of the Public Defender, Gotham Gazette, July 11, 2019

The State Legislature’s Criminal Justice Reform Failures, NY Daily News, July 8, 2019

Public Defenders as Prosecutors: Unanswered Questions, Gotham Gazette, June 20, 2019

How to Separate District Attorney Candidates All Claiming to be Progressive, Gotham Gazette, April 22, 2019

Criminal Justice Reforms Will Not Make Enough Progress If We Don’t Also Change the Criminal Court, Gotham Gazette, February 21, 2019

Let More Juvie Felons Out: Raise the Age is only a First Step, NY Daily News, October 15, 2018.

Fear-mongering Versus Reality in New York Parole, Gotham Gazette, October 5, 2018.

For Justice and Decarceration, Enact Second-Look Sentencing, Gotham Gazette, June 25, 2018.

New York City’s ‘Serious’ Crime Problem, City Limits, March 28, 2018.

McCoy v. Louisiana: Whose Case is it Anyway?, N.Y.L.J., January 19, 2018.

Governors, Think Big on Clemency, NY Daily News, November 29, 2017.

Rikers May Close. So Should Attica, Gotham Gazette, July 19, 2017.

The Treatment Court Cottage Industry and Its Unintended Consequences, Gotham Gazette, October 27, 2016.

NYPD “Peace Dividend” Reveals Truth About Unnecessary Arrests, Gotham Gazette, May 17, 2016.

The Adversarial Justice Court, Gotham Gazette, April 26, 2016.

Shut Down the Criminal Court, Gotham Gazette, February 25, 2016.

Punishment, Redemption, Mercy and Clemency, N.Y.L.J., February 16, 2016 at 6.

Justice is Swift as Petty Crimes Clog Courts, Collateral Consequences Resource Center, December 7, 2014 (ccresourcecenter.org/2014/12/07/justice-swift-petty-crimes-clog-courts/).

Playing Nice in Criminal Court: “Crashing the Misdemeanor System,” Collateral Consequences Resource Center, November 20, 2014 (ccresourcecenter.org/2014/11/20/playing-nice-criminal-court-crashing-misdemeanor-system/).

A System in Crisis, N.Y.L.J., August 20, 2014 at 6.

Is ‘broken windows’ broken? Yes, NY Daily News, August 3, 2014 at 34.

New York’s Solitary Confinement Reforms May Spark Larger Discussion, JURIST – Forum, Mar. 5 2014, http://jurist.org/forum/2014/03/steven-zeidman-solitary-confinement.php.

Equal Protection Examined in the Context of Policing, N.Y.L.J., February 7, 2014 at 6.

Criminal Court After Stop-and-Frisk, N.Y.L.J., August 28, 2013, at 6.

Indigent Defense: Caseload Standards, N.Y.L.J., March 24, 2010, at 6.

Racial Impact of Quality of Life Policing, N.Y.L.J., April 2, 2009, at 6.

Time to End Violation Pleas, N.Y.L.J., April 1, 2008, at 2.

Headshot of Steve Zeidman

Why I Teach at CUNY Law

“I teach at CUNY Law because where else do you get to be surrounded by a community committed to the cause of social justice and constantly encouraged, challenged, comforted, motivated, and supported in pursuit of that goal?”

Contact

Email
zeidman@law.cuny.edu
Phone
718-340-4357
Office
5-313

Featured Work