In recent years, New York has generally followed national trends in expanding the scope of its criminal law. The state legislature has added new laws and sanctions to the books, many of which do not comport with traditional common-law principles. The state attorney general’s office has wielded a longstanding but traditionally dormant securities law, the Martin Act, to reshape many aspects of the financial sector.

Against this backdrop of criminal-law expansion, the state legislature notably relaxed the Rockefeller drug laws. And violent crimes have remained low, even through a deep recession, and New York remains the safest large state in the nation.

To help understand these trends, the Manhattan Institute Center for Legal Policy has assembled a distinguished group of speakers. Keynoting the event will be Hon. Robert S. Smith, an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals. A panel discussion will include Evan Barr, white-collar criminal defense attorney and former chief of the major crimes unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York; Gerald Lefcourt, president of the Criminal Justice Foundation of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; James McGuire, former associate justice in the First Judicial Department of New York State’s Appellate Division and former chief counsel for New York governor George Pataki; and Daniel Richman, Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.

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