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About Judith Clark's Case & Appeal
From Affidavit:
I was arrested on Oct. 20, 1981, after I participated in an attempted robbery of a Brinks truck in Nyack, New York. Peter Paige, a Brinks guard, and two policemen, Waverly Brown and Edward O’Grady were killed during the robbery, and others were injured. Accused of being one of the “get away drivers,” I was indicted on three counts of second-degree murder. I was not represented by counsel during voir-dire and at the trial itself. Instead, I represented myself and refused to participate in the proceedings, absenting myself from the courtroom for virtually the entire trial. I was found guilty and sentenced to three consecutive terms of 25 years to life.
Find the full text in Legal.
She was sitting in a get-away car. She was never accused of being one of the "shooters." In fact, the persons doing the shooting were described as "six armed men."
Back to topWhy did she get a sentence of 75-years-to-life when some of her co-defendants received considerably shorter sentences?
Most of those who faced charges related to this crime turned
state's evidence, pled guilty, or were tried in Federal court and received
shorter sentences. Judy, in her single-minded fanaticism and ill-conceived
defiance, used her trial to demonstrate what she called "solidarity with
anti-imperialist freedom fighters." She did nothing to mount a legal
defense. In She has been incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the
In 1983, as a continuation of the self-destructive defiance she showed in refusing counsel, she waived her right to an appeal. A slow and painful process, begun nearly twenty years ago, has transformed Judy from an uncompromising extremist into a repentant criminal defendant. For many years she was unable to reconcile her feelings of guilt and remorse with the need to seek justice for herself. The combination of strong support of family and friends as well as advice from legal counsel finally led her to take active steps in pursuit of an appeal.
Attorneys Leon Friedman, Professor of Law at Hofstra University, and Lawrence Lederman and Michael L. Hirschfeld, both of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy, filed an appeal, arguing that the judge was obligated to take the protective step of appointing a stand-by counsel who could take over the case, even over the objection of the defendant. They argued that time limitations on appeal do not apply to assertions of the right to counsel.
Because Judy spent most of her trial in a holding cell located in the basement of the courthouse, physically and psychologically removed from the proceedings, and because she had no lawyer in court at any point during the presentation of the prosecution's case, she was unconstitutionally denied her right to counsel during her trial.
On
In addition to the constitutional issue described above and fact that the sentence imposed on Judy is not commensurate with her relationship to the crime, it needs to be noted that Judy is no longer the ideologue who cut herself off from society, immersed in a reckless cult-like organization. She has spent more than 20 years doing rehabilitative work, developing insight into her crime, acknowledging her remorse, building a relationship with her daughter, and serving others in the prison.
Share this site with anyone else who you think should learn about Judy. If you want to learn more and/or you're willing to help educate others about her case, write to Friends of Judy Clark:
Friends of Judy Clark
New York
Judy is a profoundly remorseful woman who has spent the last quarter century coming to terms with her past. She says, "While my life is fueled by a hope-filled commitment to repair, I never forget that the lives lost on October 20, 1981 cannot be redeemed. I will always live with sorrow, shame, and regret for my role in their deaths." The fury that animated her youth has evolved into a palpable compassion dedicated to enriching the lives of those around her. Judy's accomplishments at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility are extraordinary: she earned a BA in Behavioral Sciences in 1990 and a Masters Degree in Psychology in 1993. Since that time, she's been on the staff of the Nursery Program, where she has taught pre-natal parenting classes for pregnant women and has been a mentor and role model to the nursery mothers who live with their babies on a special unit in the prison. During the 1980's, to address the impact of the AIDS epidemic at Bedford Hills, Judy co-founded the groundbreaking ACE to support AIDS victims and educate the prison population about the disease. The organization proved so effective it has been replicated at prisons across the country. She was co-editor of" Breaking the Walls of Silence:AIDS and Women in a New York State Maximum Security Prison "[Overlook Hardcover1998] Judy also helped to rebuild a prison college program when public funding for it was eliminated in the 1990's. As part of the fund raising efforts, Judy worked with playwright Eve Ensler [The Vagina Monologues] who produced a PBS documentary, "What I Want MY Words To Do To You". The filmmakers go inside a writing workshop where 15 women, most of whom were convicted of murder, grapple with the nature of their crimes and their culpability. As a result of the college program, more than 100 women have been awarded Associate's or Bachelor's degrees in the past ten years. Judy continues to be an ongoing informal advisor to many of those students. Judy lives in a special volunteer unit with inmates who participate in the Puppies Behind Bars program raising and training puppies to become guide dogs for the blind, explosive detection dogs for law enforcement agencies, and service dogs for disabled people - primarily war veterans. She is currently raising her seventh puppy. Judy's poetry has been published in numerous journals and The New Yorker, she won the 1995 PEN Prison Poetry Writing Award, and her scholarly essays have appeared in such journals as The Prison Journal, Zero to Three, and The Women's Passover Companion: Women's Reflections on the Festival of Freedom. For the past four years, Judy who was raised in the tradition of radical secular Judaism, has immersed herself in religious studies and Clinical Pastoral Education and she has just completed certification as a chaplain. The training lends a framework to her ongoing role as an informal mentor and confidante to women like herself, who are serving lengthy sentences and are trying to come to terms with their pasts and lead compassionate, fulfilling and useful lives. Perhaps her most significant accomplishment is that, despite incarceration, Judy has been a warm, loving and influential mother to her now 29-year-old daughter, a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, Stanford University, and the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
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