Susan Friedman Appointed Inaugural Administrator of the New York State Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct

NEW YORK — The Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct, a new administrative agency established to review and investigate the conduct of New York State prosecutors, has announced the appointment of Susan Friedman as its Administrator. As the Commission’s first Administrator, Friedman will be responsible for launching the Commission’s operations, which includes devising a staffing plan, hiring Commission staff, and establishing the Commission’s rules and procedures. Friedman will also be responsible for overseeing the day-today operations of the Commission, including oversight of the investigate processes.

An experienced post-conviction attorney, Friedman is currently a senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project, where she litigates post-conviction cases nationwide on behalf of individuals seeking relief from wrongful conviction. In that role, Friedman has deep experience investigate wrongful convictions and working side-by-side with prosecutors at conviction integrity units across the country. Friedman was lead or co-counsel in cases that overturned 10 wrongful convictions. She also has a long history of training students as an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law School in the Innocence Project Clinic and teaching a forensic evidence seminar to aspiring prosecutors and defense attorneys at Brooklyn Law School.

Michael A. Simons, Dean of St. John’s University School of Law and Chair of the CPC, praised Friedman’s experience and insight. “Susan Friedman is an experienced litigator, an expert in the causes of wrongful convictions, and someone dedicated to ensuring that people charged with crimes are treated fairly and justly.”

Friedman added, “I am honored to be appointed Administrator of the New York State Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct. The Commission will play a vital role in strengthening the public’s trust in the criminal legal system. I’ve worked with prosecutors whom I admire and who are committed to justice. This Commission honors and elevates their integrity by reinforcing the standard for professional conduct that they uphold every day. I look forward to working alongside the Commissioners and serving the people of the State of New York.”

Friedman was selected to lead the Commission after an extensive and competitive search that began months ago. Aber careful deliberation, Friedman was chosen to be the Administrator, Simons added, because “she is thoughtful, nuanced, and balanced in thinking about the range of prosecutorial misconduct that occurs, how the legal system should respond to that misconduct, and how attorney discipline can play a role in reducing misconduct.”

Although she has been based in New York, Friedman has handled investigations and cases across the country. Attorneys who have worked with her, both prosecutors and defense lawyers, praised her as fair. Parisa Dehghani-Tabi, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church in Virginia, noted, “In a time when we see a trust deficit between law enforcement and the community. It is incumbent on us to build institutions that will bridge that deficit. The creation of the CPC does that, and appointing Susan Friedman to build the CPC and oversee it lends a tremendous degree of credibility to the agency.” Dehghani-Tabi added, “Susan's sense of fairness, ability to investigate in a way that draws out important facts where others might give up, and her discipline in ensuring that what is revealed is the truth will hold accountable those who need to be held to account and protect those who work to do right in good faith.”

"I can't think of a better choice to serve as the CPC's first Administrator than Susan,” said Shawn Armbrust, Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. “As a scientist, she has an incredible attention to detail and a fair, methodical approach to reviewing cases that will serve the public and the criminal-legal system well.”

About the Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct: The Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct is dedicated to investigating prosecutorial conduct in New York State, serving to strengthen oversight of New York’s prosecutors and to hold them to the highest ethical standards in the exercise of their duties. The Commission was created pursuant to Judiciary State Law §§ 499-a-499-j. With the Administrator now appointed, the immediate next steps for the Commission’s launch are to begin hiring staff and developing the Commission’s rules and procedures for public comment.

In addition, an additional commissioner was recently appointed to the Commission. Marne Lenox, currently an Assistant Federal Defender with Federal Defenders of New York in the Southern District of New York, was appointed to the Commission by Governor Kathy Hochul on February 15, 2024. Before joining the Federal Defenders in 2019, Lenox was an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and a Staff Attorney at the Bronx Defenders. Lenox is also an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, where she teaches the Federal Defender Clinic.

The appointment of Marne Lenox brings to ten the number of Commissioners. One additional seat, to be appointed by the Minority Leader of the New York State Senate, remains vacant. The commission is designed to be made up of an equal number of former prosecutors and attorneys providing public defense services. A list of the current Commissioners is available here.

About Susan Friedman: Before joining the Innocence Project, Friedman was a staff attorney with the DNA Unit at The Legal Aid Society in New York, where her practice focused on emerging DNA technology. Prior to working at The Legal Aid Society, she was an Equal Justice Works Fellow and staff attorney at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project in D.C., where she represented individuals whose wrongful convictions were secured through the use of unreliable and unvalidated forensic science evidence. Friedman’s unique scientific background and expertise in DNA and litigation led to a role as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law
School, where she taught a seminar she originated on forensic science. Friedman graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in Biochemistry and from The George Washington University Law School. She also holds an M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where her research focused on stem cells and cancer development.