Manhattan District Attorney Race: Eliza Orlins Profile

NEW YORK, NY — Voters in Manhattan will see eight names on the Democratic ballot and one on the Republican when they vote in the June 22 primary election for Manhattan District Attorney.

One of those names will be Eliza Orlins, a criminal defense attorney for the Legal Aid Society.

She is running to succeed Cyrus Vance Jr., who said in mid-March that he will not seek reelection.

The Manhattan District Attorney's race is not ranked-choice voting.

Patch reached out to all candidates in the election to create these profiles. Orlins' responses are below.

Eliza Orlins

Age (as of Election Day)

38

Position Sought

District Attorney

Party Affiliation

Democrat

Neighborhood of residence

West Village

Family

I was born in Manhattan as the eldest daughter of my parents, Susan and Steve Orlins. When I was four years old, my parents and I went to Beijing where they adopted my sister, Sabrina. Sixteen months later, my youngest sister, Emily, was born. My grandmother escaped Nazi persecution by fleeing Paris during World War II and met my grandfather during the war here in Manhattan.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

Syracuse University ‘05, Fordham University School of Law ‘08

Occupation

Public Defender, The Legal Aid Society, Manhattan, Criminal Defense Practice since October 2009
Union Member, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys Local 2325, part of UAW 9A, since 2009.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

NA

Campaign website

ElizaOrlins.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

When I became a public defender over a decade ago, I saw how our cruel, unjust criminal legal system operated. I have grown more frustrated, heartbroken, and angry with each passing year. Over a decade of working as a public defender and standing side-by-side representing over 3,000 New Yorkers and fighting for human beings charged with crimes in the city, I’ve seen the humanity in each and every person I’ve defended. These are people’s moms, dads, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives. These are people’s children. These are people who are being jailed and bullied for low-level minor offenses and dehumanized, and the DA’s office is perpetuating that “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” mentality. I’ve seen the system that is designed to systematically disenfranchise so many - including our Black, Brown, low-income, disability, and LGBTQIA communities - work exactly as it was intended to. I’ve also seen the way the system is rigged in favor of the wealthy and powerful. As a public defender working on behalf of the very New Yorkers our criminal legal system most harms, I have realized that we can’t change the system unless we change the District Attorney. That’s why I decided to run for DA.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Racist and xenophobic criminal legal policies in Manhattan, New York State, and the United States at large are fueling racial and economic disparities and perpetuating the over-prosecution and over-incarceration of Black, Brown, and low-income New Yorkers.

For far too long, the Manhattan DA’s office has been used to a rigged criminal legal system that makes New Yorkers less safe and disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color, fueling mass criminalization and a crisis of over-incarceration.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am the only public defender running for Manhattan District Attorney. As DA, I will ensure that the presumption will be treatment rather than incarceration. My office will always push for expanded access to mental health resources outside of the criminal legal system. I’ve represented thousands of New Yorkers in court. The system isn’t broken — it’s working the way it was designed to protect the wealthy, connected, and white, while disenfranchising communities of color.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

Cy Vance’s policies, including sending New Yorkers who can not afford outrageous bail fees to Rikers Island, have directly contributed to the over-incarceration epidemic facing Black, Brown, and low-income New Yorkers. As a public defender for nearly a dozen years, I have tried cases where my clients have spent days, months, or years in jail, unable to afford their freedom. During this time, I have seen clients lose their jobs, homes, and children — all without trial or conviction.
Being thrown in jail or prison will not correct the behavior of a person who has committed a low-level offense or misdemeanor, as my predecessor misunderstands, but setting a person on a course toward therapy and treatment may. Unlike DA Vance, as District Attorney I would seek to avoid a sentence of incarceration that has the added benefit of removing the nearly endless list of consequences that an individual suffers in prison and upon release, both of which lead to recidivism. We need a Manhattan DA who is committed to real reform, and I will be that DA.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

During the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, a public health catastrophe unfolded in our jails and put everyone at greater risk. At one point last spring, Rikers has the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the world. This was a humanitarian crisis, right here in New York City, and our elected officials did not act with the urgency necessary to meet the moment. Instead, thousands were condemned to sickness, and even death. Incarceration is and always has been a public health crisis, and COVID-19 brought to urgent light the need to change these situations.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

I am running for District Attorney to create a fair and equitable criminal legal system that makes our communities safer. The current system does not achieve that goal. Instead, it wages war on people experiencing poverty, mental health issues, or substance use disorder. Arresting and prosecuting New Yorkers for low-level offenses like petty theft, consensual sex work, and drug possession tears families apart and perpetuate cycles of poverty and inequality, while making us all less safe.

As District Attorney, I will categorically decline to prosecute all violations and the vast majority of misdemeanors. This includes all crimes of personal possession of drugs, sex work between consenting adults, as well as prosecutions that target people who are poor, who have mental health issues, or who suffer from substance use disorder. Furthermore, I will advocate for legislative change in Albany to repeal these offenses.

With very few exceptions, misdemeanor charges are simply not a threat to public safety. Prosecuting these cases upends lives; it hurts people who are charged, their families, and their communities.

My campaign platform centers outspoken advocacy for our city’s most vulnerable, which fuels my desire to establish a Conviction Review Unit in the Manhattan DA’s office.

There are disparities in outcomes across demographics such as race, socioeconomics, gender, sexual orientation, and more. It is simply not enough for an office as large and powerful as the Manhattan DA’s office to wait for other researchers and activists to analyze this issue. It is immoral when decades of research and activism have identified these disparities, and the DA’s office neither makes clear changes nor implements systems to address them. Instead, the Manhattan DA’s office must proactively assess itself in order to ensure it is aware of its own disparities and that it is positioned to address them effectively.

Upon taking office, I will establish a Conviction Review Unit. This unit will be staffed with attorneys, scientists, statisticians, data analysts, and subject matter experts. Additionally, The Unit will partner with external activists and research organizations. This unit will perform in-depth assessments of prosecutorial practices, provide legal review of and guidance on cases at risk for wrongdoing by the DAs office, and monitor data feeds of case information to flag cases that appear to be inappropriately conducted.

As District Attorney, I am committed to holding the police accountable. Upon assuming office, I will create a dedicated, independent unit to prosecute police misconduct and adopt an ironclad policy that any form of police misconduct will never be tolerated, including perjury at trials or hearings, physical abuse of members of the public, destruction, and theft of property, false arrests, and sexual assault. As a public defender, I know the enormously high cost that these actions have on individuals and communities. Justice and accountability are by no means equivalent, but holding police officers accountable for wrongdoing is the least that we can do.

As District Attorney, I will advocate for broad, transformative changes to our understanding of public safety. Being anti-violence and pro-public safety means standing up to police brutality because our city is not safer when police officers are effectively allowed to terrorize and kill people. I will use the power of the office to hold the police accountable when they break the law, and I will fight for disciplinary consequences to hold police officers responsible when they engage in misconduct that does not rise to the level of criminality or cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

As the only public defender running for Manhattan District Attorney, I know the enormously high cost that the criminal legal system - one that is working exactly as it was intended to - has on individuals and communities, especially Black, Brown, and low-income communities.

Throughout my career, I have represented over 3,000 New Yorkers who couldn’t otherwise afford legal assistance. My transformative policy prescriptions for the Manhattan DA’s office are rooted in cutting edge data, research, and the lived experiences of those who I have represented as a career public defender, New Yorkers who have survived the horrors of a criminal legal system rooted in systematic racism and white supremacy.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

It’s a variation of “be the change you wish to see in the world,” which I choose to interpret to mean that each of us must use our voices, our platforms, and our work to speak up and speak out against injustice in all of its oppressive forms. I have always been encouraged to speak up, speak my mind, and speak truth to power — and that is what I will do as Manhattan’s next DA, fighting the entrenched powers that be, hand and hand with our community.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

My fun fact is that In 2004, I competed on CBS’s Survivor, an experience that afforded me a national following, which I use to advocate on behalf of criminal justice reform and other social justice issues.