Hochul’s flawed verdict

To the editor:

When a rapist is convicted because DNA evidence shows he is guilty, should that be overturned on a legal technicality? The newly confirmed chief judge of the NYS Court of Appeals, Rowan Wilson, thinks so. He wrote the majority opinion freeing the rapist.

In testimony before the State Senate, Wilson claimed that he was required to do so because it was four years before the defendant was indicted and the Constitution requires a speedy trial. But it wasn't the victim's fault that prosecutors dragged their feet and two other judges did not feel they were "required" to release a convicted rapist. Governor Kathy Hochul nominated Wilson after her previous choice, NYS Supreme Court Judge Hector LaSalle, was rejected. LaSalle had written a majority opinion that would have allowed Cablevision to sue union leaders who criticized them for defamation. Luckily, the Court

of Appeals, which Hochul nominated LaSalle to head, overturned that decision. But the judges who voted with LaSalle and Wilson are still on the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.

Hochul is a poor judge of judges. The fact that LaSalle would have been the first Latino Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and Wilson is now the first Black one does not change the fact that they are awful choices. When President Lyndon Johnson chose Thurgood Marshall to be the first Black U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, he was picking a brilliant civil rights lawyer who remains one of the best choices ever made of any color.

Finally, notice I made my arguments without saying progressive, liberal, woke, moderate or conservative. It's about time people stopped using labels to hide the weaknesses of their arguments. While my views fall mostly to the left, I don't automatically go there, regardless of the facts. Unfortunately, there are people from left, middle and right who seem to fall into their arguments via blind ideology. This includes many in the center, who I suspect if put in King Solomon's position would have cut that baby in half. So how about using facts, logic and morality before taking a stance?

Richard Warren