NYs top judge sparks outrage with wild suggestion to go easy when sentencing criminals

ALBANY – New York’s top judge has sparked outrage after suggesting that local jurists should consider going easy when sentencing criminals — and that voters should oust those who don’t.State Republicans filed a complaint on Wednesday claiming Chief Judge Rowan Wilson ran afoul of ethics rules with his comments at a panel discussion hosted by the CUNY School of Law in Queens late last month.Wilson, who has served as chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals since 2022, advocated for people to vote out judges who dole out lengthy prison terms — and called it “stupid” to oppose legislation that would give convicted criminals the right to a second sentencing hearing.“It’s a very hard thing, I think, given the current sentencing framework, to get judges at the moment of sentencing, to think ‘oh I should think about this fact that there isn’t a re-sentencing available,” Wilson said, suggesting some judges need to apply more lenient punishments.He also called it “very distressing” that a judge recently called a defendant an “animal” who “should be “locked up” for the rest of his life, before sentencing him.“You can find out who those people are,” Rowan told the panel’s attendees.“And when those judges come up to be elected, don’t vote for them and get other people not to vote for them.That’s something that you can do for me,” he said.The CUNY forum was centered around the Second Look Act, a piece of legislation that has been floating around Albany for a few years and that would give convicted criminals the option to request another sentencing hearing after 10 years.But Wilson’s comments, Republican lawmakers said, crossed the line of what judges are allowed to avow publicly, according to state judicial conduct rules.

“Your political opinion means nothing when you’re in that robe on the bench.Your politics should have nothing to do with the way you render a decision,” state Sen.

Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk), ra...