Hon. David B. Saxe and Y. David Scharf Criticize New Report on “Excessive” Sentences

Morrison Cohen Partner Hon. David B. Saxe (Ret.), a former Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, and Chair & Co-Managing Partner Y. David Scharf were quoted in a New York Law Journal article entitled “New Study by Author of ‘Carceral’ Judges Report Turns Focus to ‘Excessive’ Sentences.”

The article discussed a new report co-authored by the watchdog group Scrutinize, which identifies judges who had sentences reversed or reduced from 2007 to 2023 and includes tallies of how many years were reduced from their sentencing determinations. The report concluded that 65 lower court judges engaged in “excessive sentencing” more than once during the study period, and that the 12 judges with five or more most excessive sentence findings had their sentences reduced by a total of 1,246 years.

Saxe and Scharf are among the prominent figures in the legal community who denounced last year’s report on New York City’s “disproportionately carceral” judges by the same author.

Regarding the new report, in a joint statement to the Law Journal, Saxe and Scharf stated that many of the rulings that the authors rely upon for their analysis don’t provide detailed explanations for why sentences were reduced. Further, while Scrutinize has a “stated goal of judicial transparency,” the group’s “not so hidden agenda is to have a seat at the table when it comes to judicial appointments and reappointments,” they said.

New York Law Journal subscribers may read the full article here.