PROJECT MERCY

Judge John Gleeson of the Eastern District of New York is a remarkable man as we and DOM have detailed on our blogs. At this point in his career he is helping institute such earthshaking changes from the federal bench that his role as the lead prosecutor that secured a conviction and lifetime prison sentence against John Gotti is rapidly becoming a footnote to his career. 

Enter Project Mercy. The NY Times reports here about Denise Dalliare, a woman sentenced to fifteen years for a small amount of cocaine. She was recently released after ten years when the sentencing judge, who could never forget the unfairness of her sentence, mitigated the sentence to time served. 

Judge Gleeson, who sits on the Federal District Court in Brooklyn and teaches a course in sentencing at New York University Law School, takes his students and clerks every year to the Danbury prison. He was inspired to do so by his mentor, the late Judge Eugene H. Nickerson, who urged him to spend time in a prison at least once a year to keep in mind where he was sending defendants.

As part of those visits, inmates tell the group about their cases and their lives behind bars. For the past several years, Ms. Dallaire has been one of those inmates...

After his most recent visit to Danbury, Judge Gleeson decided to see if he could get Ms. Dallaire’s sentence reduced. He thought the best way would be to seek a presidential pardon, and he called a friend, Jonathan D. Polkes, a partner in the major New York City firm of Weil Gotshal & Manges, and asked if he would be willing to take on the case pro bono.

The article goes on to state that Judge Gleeson wants to create Project Mercy. 

Modeled on the Innocence Project where lawyers would donate time to research and help inmates, Project Mercy would seek out cases of inmates who are not innocent but are caught in a prison system where their sentences were issued at a time when minimum mandatory sentences ruled the day. 

So we ask the Judiciary of South Florida to follow in Judge Gleeson's footsteps. How about taking day trips to some local state prisons? How about seeking out qualified lawyers to work on cases with sentences that in retrospect seem wholly unfair? 

Do we have any Judge Gleeson's in South Florida?