Another Senator signs on

Senator Antoine Thompson has formally signed on to S6002, the Public Defense Act of 2009. He was already on record in support of public defense reform; the Buffalo News published his op-ed piece in March, reported here.

Writing in observance of Gideon Day, he noted the need to create an Independent Public Defense Commission and added:

"Albany at long last appears poised to do just that. For reasons of justice and fiscal prudence, we can’t turn back."

While there have been a few unexpected bumps in the legislative road since then, the Legislature must not turn back. Every Senator and Assemblymember who has not yet signed on to S6002/A8793 should do so now. And when the Senate comes back into session, this reform should be a priority.

These legislators are currently signed onto the bill:

A8793
LENTOL, GOTTFRIED, PAULIN, CAHILL, CLARK, CANESTRARI, ENGLEBRIGHT, JACOBS, DINOWITZ, POWELL, PEOPLES, KAVANAGH, ROSENTHAL, BENEDETTO, WEINSTEIN, JOHN, SCHIMEL, LANCMAN, O'DONNELL, LATIMER, CAMARA, CASTRO, GIBSON; M-S: Abbate, Alfano, Aubry, Bacalles, Benjamin, Bing, Boyland, Bradley, Brennan, Brodsky, Brook-Krasny, Cymbrowitz, DenDekker, Espaillat, Farrell, Fields, Gantt, Giglio, Glick, Gordon, Heastie, Hikind, Hooper, Hoyt, Jaffee, Jeffries, Kellner, Lavine, Lifton, V. Lopez, Lupardo, Magee, Magnarelli, Maisel, Markey, McEneny, Millman, Morelle, Ortiz, Parment, Perry, Pheffer, Pretlow, Ramos, Reilly, N. Rivera, P. Rivera, Robinson, Scarborough, Schroeder, Scozzafava, Sweeney, Thiele, Titone, Titus, Towns, Townsend, Weisenberg, Wright

S6002
SCHNEIDERMAN, HASSELL-THOMPSON, SAMPSON, ADAMS, BONACIC, BRESLIN, DIAZ, DILAN, FOLEY, HUNTLEY, MONSERRATE, MONTGOMERY, ONORATO, OPPENHEIMER, PARKER, PERKINS, SERRANO, SQUADRON, STEWART-COUSINS, THOMPSON, VALESKY