New York State Bills for Sealing Convictions Have Been Drafted…Please Help Lobby

[equality]

everyone needs to come together. There may be hope more than originally thought to get this bill through. Please you must all call simone levine at the 212 number listed, and apply pressure to get the bill amended. Let me state that the legislative session may be extended because of all this chaos, and we may have a new democratic majority leader. Please everyone must get involved. Also call espada office, and monteressate, and state your dissapointment. They may be coming back our way. Look out for some suprises in the next couple of days, but everyone needs to get involved now.
Come on Johnny lets do it, but others must take action not just view. I also got word that if the bill is amended it will be like rockefeller where you don't have to disclose it to sensitive jobs, just like NJ. But no guarantee on that

[jayblack]

This has my full support, and I intend to help as much as possible!

[Clock]

This has my full support, and I intend to help as much as possible!

Yup. I'll be calling after I get out of work today as well.

[equality]

Alsoplease take note thata the sponsor of the bill may become the majority leader Senator John Sampson

[Johnny Leary]

I got through directly to Simone Levine today and here’s the deal. The current session ends this upcoming Monday. And there’s only a few ways that it’d get voted on before then.

The first two involve the Rules or Codes Committee taking control of it but that’s no good now because neither are meeting again this session. The other is to have the more conservative Senators say they definitely support the bill and let Simone know they do or have them contact her (she’ll take your word for it but the catch is you have to talk with them directly).

Since we’re running out of time with that option there is a final way and that is to have the Governor call an emergency session but he can only do that after this one is over. He’s actually expected to do this anyway but our bill would be hard to get on his list of bills they’ll vote on during it since they’ll be focusing on the non-controversial ones. However if you all were up for it, it’s worth a shot to try and persuade him. But it’d definitely take at least all of us. And you’d actually have to call and write in, not just say you did. If only 2-3 people did this it wouldn’t work as the odds are against us anyway.

Simone does support this bill and she thinks it’s a good one. Also Senator Sampson is now the Democratic Conference Leader and it is still a priority in his office. Supposedly they’re just waiting for it to get back to them and then they’ll pursue it.

Well there’s the breaks. I’m interested in hearing what the consensus is. Actually there is another alternative and that’s just to see what happens in the interim and wait till the new session begins in January.

If you want to call Simone today you can reach here directly in her NYC office at (212) 298-5553.

[Clock]

Bah. Everything that I've heard is that it's complete chaos and that no bills are getting pushed through. Anyone know the status of A6065?

[equality]

right now we need to focus on this bill for next year. This year has become a loss year. But this bill should pass within the next two years. We need to keep pushing. January 2010 is not far off. so lets keep it up.

[Johnny Leary]

Hi everyone, since we’ve all basically concurred it would be next to impossible to pursue the sealing bill in the emergency session (if there even is one); we’ll wait for the new session to begin at the start of January 2010. It sounds far off but it really isn’t and use this time off wisely by preparing. Seriously, write your templates for letters of support to your Assemblymen and Senators. That way when the end of December rolls around you can just plug in the different names and addresses then we can all send them at once. It’d be ideal to hit the ground running this next time around. Also write a letter to the Governor and hold on to that for now. If you have time, go back through all the other people that were mentioned in previous posts and have letters ready for them too.

In the meantime if you want to stay active over the off-season there are two people who were a big help in getting the Rockefeller reforms passed and still want to go further. It’d help if you can contact them now and ask for their support on Bills # S1708 and A6065. My posts will be less frequent while the session is out but I’ll keep adding more when I find more important people to talk to that could be a great aid to us.

Anita R. Marton, Vice President http://lac.org/

Legal Action Center
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
Phone # (212) 243-1313
toll free 1-800-223-4044
Fax # (212) 675-0286
E-Mail: lacinfo@lac.org


Craig P. Schlanger, President http://www.nysacdl.org/

New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
NYSACDL
245 Fifth Avenue
19th Floor
New York, New York 10016

Voice: (212) 532-4434
Fax: (212) 532-4668

President Craig P. Schlanger - cschlanger@nysacdl.com

[Johnny Leary]

Hello all, the legislative session is right around the corner again and there's a good chance we'll be up and running in the lobbying efforts for this upcoming year very soon.

But to do that please everyone go out today and vote Democrat across the board. It'll really help if we want to get the bill(s) passed. Thanks!

[Johnny Leary]

To all subscribers of this thread, the lobbying effort in New York State to get these bills passed in the upcoming legislative session has started again. Its link is here:

http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91567

Please help out by calling, e-mailing, and writing your representatives.

Also, post in the new thread and not on this one.