New Yorkers Citizen’s view of impeachment
deserve a
second chance
Caribbean Life, Dec. 27, 2019-Jan. 2, 2020 11
ades, and in 2017 they partly succeeded:
New York’s Raise the Age law included
a provision — C.P.L. §160.59 — allowing
certain people to petition a court
to seal their criminal records. It was a
hard-fought win that deserves praise: It
created the first real records-clearance
opportunity many in New York had ever
seen.
But fewer than 1 percent of those
thought eligible have been able to benefit,
and it is time we expand the reach
of the law.
First, under the current law, a person
can have only two convictions in their
entire lifetime. This knocks out millions
of New Yorkers, including those who
struggled with drug addiction, mental
illness and/or homelessness and racked
up dozens of minor convictions simply
trying to survive. It also knocks out the
many New Yorkers, mostly black and
brown, who live in over-policed communities
and endured the wrongs of aggressive
stop-and-frisk practices.
Second, at least 10 years must have
passed since the person’s last conviction
(or release from incarceration, whichever
is later).
Finally, individuals must petition a
court to get relief, and the process is so
complex that it often requires a lawyer.
People who’ve been held back by stale
criminal records often don’t have the
means to pay private lawyers, and free
legal assistance is not only hard to come
by, in many parts of the state it’s nonexistent.
For all these reasons and more,
the Clean Slate New York campaign
— involving people with lived experience,
advocates and grassroots groups
— together with a growing number of
legislators, are pressing for a law creating
automatic criminal records expungement.
This law would build on principles
and processes of automatic expungement
provisions in the marijuana decriminalization
bill we passed last session, and
would bring relief for hundreds of thousands
of New Yorkers who face enduring
effects of encounters with punishment.
States including New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Indiana and even Utah have passed
equivalent laws, and it’s time that we do
the same.
A criminal conviction shouldn’t be a
life sentence to second class status, but
for many of our friends, neighbors, family
members and fellow New Yorkers,
that’s exactly what it is. The New Year
is coming. Let’s pass legislation giving
people a real chance at a fresh start,
something more meaningful than any
gift money can buy.
Myrie represents parts of Sunset Park,
Park Slope, Crown Heights and other
neighborhoods in the state Senate. Smith
is a policy entrepreneur at Next100.
Continued from Page 10
Republican members of the House
said during the debate on Dec. 18,
2019. In 1787 Morris had argued: “If
the president should be re-elected,
that will be sufficient proof of his
innocence,”. “Impeachment will
render the Executive dependent on
those who are to impeach.” Mason’s
response was forthright :“Shall any
man be above justice? Shall that
man be above it who can commit the
most extensive injustice? Shall the
man who has practiced corruption,
and by that means procured his
appointment in the first instance,
be suffered to escape punishment by
repeating his guilt?”
Consistently, James Madison
argued that the Constitution must
provide “for defending the community
against the incapacity, negligence,
or perfidy of the chief magistrate.”
“He might pervert his administration
into a scheme of peculation
or oppression.” Furthermore, Madison
presciently warned. “He might
betray his trust to foreign powers.”
This has turned out to be the key
issue in the recent impeachment
investigations and hearings dividing
the pro- and anti-impeachment
house members. At the end, as we
also know, the delegates voted, 8
states to 2, to make the executive
removable by impeachment thus following
up on the English parliamentary
model of impeachment.
We may debate whether the Founders
got the balance on impeachment
just right or settled for a vague
standard that is often too weak to
stop abuse of power by the president.
This is clearly an issue in the
current situation. Johnson’s acquittal
— in spite of Kennedy’s defense
of it in his 1955 book — may have
enabled him to disable progressive
legislation during the reconstruction.
But when as an ordinary citizen I
look back on these debates and further
practices in the US history, the
brighter side of our historic legacy
stands out. There have always been
sincere and serious fighters for institutionalizing
checks and balances to
guarantee freedom. But the application
is a complex process. The current
situation looks bleak because
of the more than usual dose of lies,
half truths and plain ignorance of
our constitution by some of our
law makers. However, the constitutional
arguments offered defending
the right of the ordinary citizens’
representatives to take the task of
impeachment seriously shows that
the spirit and wisdom of Mason,
Madison and Randolph are still alive
among the majority of the house
members.
Continued from Page 10
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