clemency

The rapper, 49, was imprisoned after turning himself in for a cold case murder he committed as a teenager.

Criminal justice reform advocates hope the state will expand use of clemency and parole in the new year.

Activists from throughout New York are urging legislators to pass laws aimed at making parole more available, particularly for inmates over 55 who have served at least 15 years.

David Gilbert, a left-wing activist who spent four decades behind bars for his role in the infamous robbery of an armored truck that left two police officers and a guard dead, will be released from prison.

“We are very disappointed that he did not grant more.”

Silver, the former powerful NY Assembly Speaker, is serving a sentence for corruption.

Out of 1049 medical parole petitions since March, only nine have been granted.

The men, whose applications have been assisted by students in a legal clinic at the CUNY School of Law, range in age from 28 to 64. Each is serving a lengthy sentence that will keep most of them in prison well into old age, should they survive that long.

Despite the spread of COVID-19 in the prison system, the state has granted fewer clemency petitions in 2020 than in prior years.

"We've never seen anything like this. The bulk pardons for war criminals is unprecedented. Giving pardons to people charged in an investigation of the president himself, unheard of."