Judicial Reports: Prosecuting the Bench

By John Ennis
johnennis@judicialstudies.com
Posted 11-14-07

This week’s lead story, Concealed Witness, examines District Attorney policies regarding Brady disclosures. But the ultimate call is made from the bench. So how many of New York City's big trial judges used to work the prosecutorial side of the street?

Last year, Judicial Reports examined the work history of the 300+ members of New York City’s Supreme Court (the main trial court). At least 97 of them had previous prosecutorial experience (31 percent).

The majority of these judges sit in the criminal term:

NYC Supreme Court Justices with Prosecutorial Experience
Criminal Term    67 of 141        48%
Civil Term         30 of 168        18%

Ten had federal experience, and 17 worked for the State Attorney General. As for those from a local jurisdiction, here's the breakdown:

Where Judges Had Local Prosecutorial Experience
Manhattan        32
Bronx               16
Queens            15
Brooklyn           15
Staten Island      6
Westchester       1

[Note: the overall total (including state and federal prosecutors) is larger than 97 because some judges worked in multiple jurisdictions.]

Some correlation exists between where a judge served as assistant district attorney (ADA) and where she now sits, but it’s not one-for-one. The former Manhattan ADAs who are now on the bench are all over the city:

NYC Judges Who Were Manhattan ADAs and the County Where They Now Sit
Bronx             14
Manhattan      10
Brooklyn          5
Staten Island    3
Queens            0

To reiterate the bottom line: If you are charged with a felony in NYC, the odds that your judge will be a former prosecutor are about 50-50.


Posted by Ennis on November 14, 2007 01:21 AM to Judicial Reports