Current Events > Senate Republicans grill lawyer who worked to free wrongfully convicted people

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-crime-biden-judge-nina-morrison_n_620d3e4ae4b012513085db5a?qtc

In a hearing on Wednesday that was as performative as it was embarrassingly ill-informed, Senate Republicans tried to blame one of President Joe Bidens judicial nominees Nina Morrison, an attorney with the Innocence Project who has freed dozens of innocent people from prison for driving up violent crime across America.

Morrison, 52, is up for a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Of New York. She is the senior litigation counsel at the New York-based Innocence Project, an organization focused on exonerating wrongly convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

She has been lead or co-counsel on cases that have freed more than 30 innocent people from prison and death row.

But Republicans in the Judiciary Committee went after Morrison as if she had committed the crimes that her clients were convicted of that they didnt actually commit, either. They tried to blame her for recent spikes in violent crimes in cities, and pressed her on whether she felt guilty about freeing people from prison who had been convicted of violent crimes, glossing over the fact that they had been exonerated by DNA evidence.

The whole of your record is deeply disturbing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Morrison.
Across this country, Americans are horrified at skyrocketing crime rates, at skyrocketing homicide rates, at skyrocketing burglary rates, at skyrocketing carjacking rates, he said. All of those are the direct result of the policies youve spent your entire lifetime advancing.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told Morrison he planned to oppose her nomination, along with any other nominees the Biden administration puts forward who are soft on crime.
I will oppose you and anyone else the administration sends to us who do not understand the necessity of the rule of law, he said.

None of it made sense until you noticed a pattern in the attacks Republicans were making: First, use a judicial nomination to wage a proxy fight against progressive prosecutors, a cohort of left-leaning Democratic district attorneys who have sought reforms to the bail system, curbed enforcement of lower-level marijuana offenses and increased the use of diversion programs over jail time. Second, falsely cast these Democratic district attorneys policies as the reason for spikes in crime, and then tie the judicial nominee to those policies and therefore the violence.

The whole situation the faux outrage, the claims that Morrison was soft on crime, the claims that Republicans were the ones who were tough on crime was a ridiculous spectacle, given that Morrison has spent her entire career getting innocent people out of prison.

The GOP attacks perhaps offer a preview of how Republicans on the panel plan to go after Bidens Supreme Court nominee when she comes before the committee.

In a series of gotcha-type questions, Cruz pressed Morrison on whether she thinks Philadelphia is safer now than it was before its Democratic district attorney Larry Krasner was elected in 2017. Morrison was an adviser to Krasners transition team.

I do not consider myself an expert on crime statistics, she began.

You have no view, Cruz interrupted.

I can certainly talk about the cases that Ive worked on in Philadelphia, she said.

So you advised his transition team, Cruz said, interrupting again. Let me ask you, when you were advising him on his and by the way, is the murder rate today in Philadelphia higher or lower than when Mr. Krasner was elected?

Senator, I do not know because I have not studied those statistics, Morrison said.

So you were part of the transition team but didnt really care about the results, Cruz said, cutting her off again while rattling off statistics about crime rates in Philadelphia.
It went on like this for several minutes, until Cruz ran out of time.

Why do you keep advising radical district attorneys who let violent criminals go and result in homicide rates skyrocketing? he demanded. Do you care about the innocent people being killed because of the policies youre implementing?

Morrison explained that her work with district attorneys like Krasner has been specifically focused on conviction integrity, or the review of old cases, not on formulating new policies relating to prosecutions. She said there was a link between the two, though.

It is because when the wrong person is convicted of murder, the person who has actually committed the crime isnt brought to justice, that I think the work connects and Morrison began until Cruz interrupted her again.

Sadly, your nomination is part of a pattern from this administration and Democrats in the Senate, if they follow their pattern, will vote to [confirm] yet another judge who will let more violent criminals go, he concluded.

Hawley tried to tie Morrison to a decision by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to release people who had been arrested during violent protests in the city in 2020 over George Floyds murder. Morrison previously wrote a 2019 article praising Gardners work on a murder case in which she found evidence that the person who had been put into prison, Lamar Johnson, was innocent, and went to court to try to overturn the conviction.
Lets talk a little bit about her record that you saw fit to praise, Hawley said, painting a dramatic picture of crimes in the city.

In the midst of rioting that convulsed the city of St. Louis, police officers were shot at rioters threw rocks and gasoline and frozen water bottles firefighters were assaulted innocent civilians were assaulted, he said. [Gardner] said the police were the ones at fault. Is that the kind of approach that you stand by and think is appropriate for prosecutors to take?

Morrison said her op-ed that referenced Gardner was specifically about the wrongly convicted man, Johnson and that the piece had a heartening effect among Republican lawmakers in his state.

The Missouri Legislature, I believe a Republican in both chambers who sponsored the bill, changed the law so that Ms. Gardner could successfully file a motion for a new trial on behalf of the individual referenced, and we were joined by the [libertarian] Cato Institute and others in supporting that bill, she said.

In the particular case I was writing about, she added, it appeared to reflect a broader consensus about how to handle wrongful convictions.

wish we had candidates willing to fling shit right back as shithole senators. there's no point trying to preserve their chances of being selected at this point, just get on the soap box and call them out for their blatant bullshit on live tv.

The best solution is to wrongly convict senate republicans

Any time Ted Cruz speaks I would remind him that he is a coward who abandoned his state when they needed him. I wish democrats had more of a backbone to tell these people what they really need to hear. Stop trying to be professional. It doesn't work anymore.

Irony posted...

The best solution is to wrongly convict senate republicans

"Wrongly"

Is this Ted fella related to Rafael Cruz of Texas?

Why is the Republican Party literally evil?

Surely the clue is literally in the name of The Innocence Project...

They just lie and lie, Jesus Christ.

you know, he's probably grilling her so hard to see if she'll be up to taking his case when they finally get around to arresting him for being the zodiac killer.

Congressional Republicans are a menace

hitokoriX posted...

Any time Ted Cruz speaks I would remind him that he is a coward who abandoned his state when they needed him. I wish democrats had more of a backbone to tell these people what they really need to hear. Stop trying to be professional. It doesn't work anymore.

He also ate Trumps ass after Donny boy called his wife ugly and his dad a serial killer.

Hes a coward.

Both Cruz and Hawley are cowardly shit heels who would invariably crumble under the weight of the work involved in criminal defense and postconviction cases. Kudos to this lady's work; it's difficult, thankless, and absolutely vital.

They need to implement some policy to stop people from interrupting. I swear it's the same story again and again with Republicans just talking over everyone else in the room and then acting like they're right because they're louder. I have family members who do this same shit and it's exhausting.

Really feels like saying the quiet part out loud here

Yeah the problem here, other conservatives being fascists, is that she is being peofessional and engaging eih them in good faith. Stop doing this. You aren't going to win any points with any conservative legislator or voter this way, or in any way for that matter. They now live in a separate reality.

The only way to deal with them is with hostility. When dorks like Hawley and Cruz question your position on crime remind everyone in the room that they were participants in a violent insurrection attempt in which people died and they are now actively working to cover up both their roles and everyone else in their party's role.

TheOnionKnight posted...

They need to implement some policy to stop people from interrupting. I swear it's the same story again and again with Republicans just talking over everyone else in the room and then acting like they're right because they're louder. I have family members who do this same shit and it's exhausting.

Sadly it worked for Trump :(

Republicans, nuff said

How anyone can support the GQP is beyond me. Oh wait, its cause theyre terrible people too!