
Manhattan DA's office drops more than 3,000 open marijuana cases - DoreenMichele
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-marijuana/manhattan-das-office-drops-more-than-3000-open-marijuana-cases-idUSKCN1LS2ID
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kevmo
This is likely stemming at least in part from Cynthia Nixon's strong run for
the Democratic nomination for governor of New York. She is running to the left
of the current governor, Andrew Cuomo (Mario Cuomo's son), and has been making
these sorts of outdated drug charges an issue.

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digianarchist
Cuomo's polling numbers are up today but even last week he was 40 points
ahead.

She hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of winning this primary.

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hnmcQIOoQUDv
She's not going to win, but Cuomo is going to lose reelection. He's so
thoroughly fucked up the subway he's lost NYC.

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jdanp
God I hope so. I'm in for Larry Sharpe all the way.

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JakeKalstad
One can only hope. Unfortunately the NYC mentality is more excited to throw
money at the dumpster fire and complain endlessly than accept that it needs to
be starved and restructured.

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kibwen
I applaud the move. Curious that these cases stretch as far back as 1978,
isn't there a statute of limitations for this sort of charge? If so, I would
have expected the oldest to have been closed automatically decades ago.

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ucha
The statute of limitation applies to the time between the moment the crime was
committed and the moment charges are filed. If charges were filled and
warrants were issued in 1978 but the "fugitive" was not caught, the statute of
limitation won't apply, and the suspect could still be arrested now.

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kibwen
Aha, I didn't realize that statue of limitations only limited charging.
Clearly I should have paid more attention in social studies. :P

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stephenSinniah
Meanwhile in Malaysia a 29 year old father to be has been sentenced to hang.
[https://www.change.org/p/jabatan-peguam-negara-free-
muhammad...](https://www.change.org/p/jabatan-peguam-negara-free-muhammad-
lukman)

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jhabdas
Haven't translated the Malay but since you speak Engris want to give us some
details surrounding the case?

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stephenSinniah
There is an English translation at the middle of the change.org page.

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danschumann
I'm from Wisconsin.... I reallly wish someone would get on the ball legalizing
it here.

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MichaelApproved
Vote for those who advocate for it. Take your friends and family to the polls
with you.

If you have extra money, donate to those politicians. Even a $10 donation is
helpful.

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ams6110
Or move to where it's legal, if it's that important to you.

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toomuchtodo
Will the DA’s office work to overturn previous convictions people are
currently serving time for? Not meant to undermine this incredibly progressive
action.

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Jgrubb
> this incredibly progressive action

..that never would've happened if Cuomo didn't feel real heat from Cynthia
Nixon.

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bdhess
Huh? This doesn't have anything to do with Cuomo. This is the New York County
(Manhattan) DA, who is himself an elected official.

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aisengard
People are so incredibly desperate to attribute things to people who haven't
really done anything. I hate Cuomo too, but I'm not going to descend into
nonsense peddling in order to fight him. It only serves to undermine any
actual effort of resistance to the man.

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chimeracoder
> People are so incredibly desperate to attribute things to people who haven't
> really done anything. I hate Cuomo too, but I'm not going to descend into
> nonsense peddling in order to fight him. It only serves to undermine any
> actual effort of resistance to the man.

The New York State political machine is incredibly corrupt and interconnected.
And Cuomo himself is more powerful and influential at all levels of state
government (which includes country-level positions) than any governor since,
well, his father. It's really not unreasonable to suspect he had a hand in
this.

What Cuomo wants, Cuomo gets.

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mancerayder
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

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danharaj
These aren't extraordinary claims by any means. Historically New York politics
have been exceptionally corrupt.

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lacker
I support dropping these cases, but it's a tough incentive that people who
simply didn't show up for court are getting their case dropped, whereas people
who got convicted will keep their convictions. I guess there is no totally
clean way to make this transition and the sooner it happens the better.

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heavenlyblue
You’re absolutely right to say that in an ideal world that would be a better
option. But I can also see that freeing convicts from the prisons may be
perceived way more negatively than this. Even though semantically there’s 0
difference.

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swerveonem
Out of how many open cases total?

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viraptor
According to [https://edition-m.cnn.com/2018/05/15/us/manhattan-
marijuana-...](https://edition-m.cnn.com/2018/05/15/us/manhattan-marijuana-
cases/index.html)

There's been 5,500 cases in 2017, which is apparently 85% decline compared to
pre-2014. So 3k is just over half year's worth.

But that's combined with stopping the possession prosecution this year.

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IncRnd
> Vance announced earlier this year that his office would no longer prosecute
> marijuana smoking and possession cases.

People who believe smoking marijuana shouldn't be illegal may agree with this,
but the better path seems to be to change the law. Otherwise, we are letting
prosecutors decide which laws will get prosecuted.

I'm not referring to selective prosecution based upon the merits of a case but
a prosecutor who can decide to completely stop prosecuting theft,
embezzlement, or murder. The end doesn't justify the means.

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solveit
They have that power quite by design, I believe.

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ChuckMcM
With all the case dropping one wonders if the court calendars are suddenly
freeing up a lot of time to hear other cases. Is anyone tracking that?

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jhabdas
> It does not apply to any cases where a defendant was convicted, or to more
> serious charges like selling marijuana.

Because selling weed would interfere with tax laws. DA just punting to save
money so they can get themselves some new hemp money satchels for future
convictions.

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dj43nq
I wonder what the economic / race demographics of these cases are?

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gnulinux
I wonder this too. I would want to explore a dataset regarding this. Maybe
there should be a startup collecting/exploring data regarding social justice
issues. Would be so much easier to make rational policies and convince the
public that there exists a problem or vice versa

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JakeKalstad
Now if we can get Larry Sharpe elected this year we may actually be able to
have some pride in how our state is being administered.

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martin1975
great move. more money for real crime.

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24gttghh
Perhaps you mean: more money to _prosecute_ real crimes?

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martin1975
yes.

