Cuomo grants clemency on his way out

Governor Andrew Cuomo granted clemency to ten people on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021.  AP Photo/Richard Drew

By Jacob Kaye

With less than a week left in office, Governor Andrew Cuomo wielded the power available only to the state’s top executive and granted clemency to 10 people Tuesday.

Five of those individuals had their sentences commuted and the other five were pardoned by the governor. While those who were pardoned will have their convictions overturned, the convictions will remain for those who had their sentences commuted.

While the governor has used his not clemency powers as much as advocates wished he would, the move was celebrated by criminal justice reformers and attorneys alike.

"One of the foundational promises of New York State is that of equal justice, and equal compassion, for all under the law," Cuomo said in a statement. "Today I'm proud to help fulfill government's unique responsibility to harness the power of redemption, encourage those who have made mistakes to engage in meaningful rehabilitation, and empower everyone to work toward a better future for themselves and their families.”

“These ten clemencies are another step on the long march towards a more fair, more just, more equitable, and more empathetic New York,” he added.

Cuomo’s clemency grants were celebrated by advocates who have been calling for a handful of reforms that would give parole opportunities to elderly incarcerated people.

“We are so happy for the five incarcerated people Governor Cuomo granted clemency to, and for their families,” said a spokesperson for the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign. “While we celebrate their return home, we know thousands also deserve their freedom. Cuomo must continue to take action in his remaining days in office by granting far more clemencies to the many incarcerated New Yorkers who can be safely released today to rejoin their families and serve their communities.”

The five men whose sentences were commuted include Nehru Gumbs, 36, Jon-Adrian Velasquez, 45, Dontie Mitchell, 41, Richard "Lee" Chalk, 63, and George Martinez, 60.

In 2006, Martinez was convicted on a burglary charge in the Bronx. Having already been convicted of several crimes prior, Martinez was given the mandatory minimum of 16 years to life in prison under the state’s persistent violent felony offender statute.

Prosecutors offered Martinez a plea bargain of 5 and a half to 11 years in prison. However, he chose to go to trial not understanding the risk, which should have been explained to him by his court appointed attorney, according to attorney David Crow, a staff attorney in the Criminal Appeals Bureau at the Legal Aid Society who represented Martinez throughout his appeal and clemency process.

“I reviewed everything and I studied the plea bargaining proceedings, and I was very struck by the fact that nobody wanted him to go to prison under one of these lifetime sentences,” Crow said. “He’s a nonviolent guy, he had problems with drugs at that time in his life, but he never hurt anybody in any of these cases.”

Throughout the appeals process, Crow said they came across a handful of sympathetic judges. However, none of the judges were able to determine whether there was a big enough legal error to justify overturning his conviction, according to Crow.

“[The appeals process] took about a decade to do and in the meantime, George had done really just a terrific job of rehabilitation in prison,” Crow said. “He had gotten back in touch with his family, his son, his daughter, his father – they all visited him in prison on a regular basis. And he became a really valued member of the prisons where he stayed.”

At the age of 60, Martinez was facing at least another decade in prison before he could even be considered for release.

“We felt like we had everything going but the governor only acts on a handful of cases, so even if you have everything going for you, you're not necessarily going to get out,” Crow said. “You have to basically wait for lightning to strike.”

And that’s exactly what happened for Martinez a week after Cuomo announced his resignation amid a sexual harassment scandal.

“It's a fantastic feeling for him and his family, who have been waiting for him to come home and spend time with them and with the grandchildren, get a job on the outside and catch up for all those lost years,” Crow said.

The Legal Aid Society is currently working on a handful of clemency cases, including for some incarcerated people in Queens. Their work began in earnest in 2015 when Cuomo requested legal aid firms and nonprofits work with his office to get clemency cases moving along.

“We've gotten relief for a handful of clients, and we're very happy for those clients and their families,” said Ted Hausman, the supervising attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau.

But despite the victories, the attorneys say that they wish the governor had done more to grant clemency to more people.

“We wish that this sort of original promise of granting commutations on a large scale had been fulfilled,” Hausman said. “The governor still has another week left, and he did grant five commutations yesterday, but we're hoping he uses his last days in office to really grant a significant number.”

That sentiment is also felt by Diana Scholl, who has spent the past year advocating for the release of Greg Mingo, an incarcerated man who was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for a double murder in Queens in 1981. He isn’t eligible for parole until 2031, when he’ll be 78 years old.

Mingo, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest, is the ideal candidate for clemency, Scholl said.

“Greg has been in prison for 40 years and has...just been remarkable,” said Scholl, who grew up with Mingo’s niece. “He's taught classes, got his paralegal certificate, he’s always cooking for Ramadan, or Jewish holidays, or whatever holidays there are, he teaches diversity classes and he's really a model citizen in prison.”

While Scholl and Mingo’s family were disappointed that he didn’t have his clemency application granted this time around, Scholl is holding out faith that Cuomo will act before he leaves office.

“We have to be hopeful,” Scholl said. “We're hopeful [Cuomo] does another round but then also, if it doesn't happen, turning our attention to Kathy Hochul, as well as legislative options and going through all the angles we have to explore.”

“Greg, he's almost 70, he's been in prison for 40 years, he's not even up for parole for another 10 years, so time is of the essence,” she added.