Caribbean L 8 ife, March 13-19, 2020
New York City Public Defender, Eliza Orlins.
Public defender runs for
Manhattan District attorney
By Nelson A. King
New York City Public Defender Eliza
Orlins has announced her candidacy for
Manhattan district attorney on a platform
designed to transform criminal
justice and make New York safer for every
resident.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve been a public
defender here in Manhattan, where
I’ve represented over 3,000 New Yorkers,
people who didn’t have the money to pay
for a lawyer; I fight for justice for them,”
said Orlins in her announcement video.
“Every day in court, I fight against a
criminal legal system that’s cruel and
unjust, one that’s rigged for the rich
and powerful and against everyone else
– a system that fails us, that devastates
Black, Brown, and low-income communities,
that tears families apart, that
hurts innocent victims, and that does not
keep us safe,” she added.
“We can do better. We must,” Orlins
continued. “I know the system from the
inside, so I know we can’t change the
system unless we change the DA (District
Attorney). That’s why I’m running to be
your next Manhattan District Attorney.”
Since 2009, Orlins said she has served
as a public defender at The Legal Aid
Society, where she has represented more
than 3,000 low-income New Yorkers targeted
for and charged with crimes by
current Manhattan District Attorney Cy
Vance.
She said she has represented and
fought on behalf of New York’s most vulnerable
communities—Black and Brown
individuals, as well as those who could
not afford a high-priced lawyer.
During that same period, she charged
that Vance has let the rich and powerful
commit brutal crimes—including rape
and sexual assault—”without a slap on
the wrist.”
“Instead, Vance has declared war on
the city’s minority and impoverished
communities,” Orlins said.
As District Attorney, she said she will
continue fighting to transform the criminal
justice system, decriminalize poverty
and make the city’s streets safer for every
New Yorker, as she has fought to do over
the last decade.
In her decade as a criminal defense
attorney for The Legal Aid Society, Orlins
said she has litigated in both New York
State Supreme Court and New York State
Criminal Court.
She said she also trains new lawyers to
argue for bail, win suppression hearings,
cross-examine witnesses and compose
powerful closing arguments.
Orlins garnered a national following
after competing on two seasons of the
CBS television show “Survivor” and a
season of CBS’s “The Amazing Race,”
which she uses to advocate for criminal
justice reform and other social justice
issues.
Orlins is a summa cum laude and Phi
Beta Kappa graduate of Syracuse University,
and a cum laude graduate of Fordham
Law School.
While in law school, Orlins externed
at The Legal Aid Society and participated
in the Criminal Defense Clinic through
New York County Defenders.
Additionally, she was the Symposium
Editor at the Urban Law Journal at Fordham
and clerked for New York State
Supreme Court Judge James A. Yates.
Orlins said she has developed a reputation
as “a relentless champion for the
underdog.”
She said she has taken on “the toughest
of fights for the very people our
system is rigged against, including our
Black and Brown neighbors and those in
lower-income communities.”