Joe Biden’s nominee for a lifetime seat on a New York court was attacked on Wednesday by Republican senators for being soft on crime, because she works to free those wrongfully convicted.
Nina Morrison, 52, is currently the senior litigation counsel at the New York-based Innocence Project, an organization focused on exonerating wrongly convicted people through DNA testing, and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
Morrison has been nominated to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern District Of New York.
She was one of four people appearing on Wednesday morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but several of the 11 Republicans on the committee appeared to ignore Morrison’s three fellow nominees, and placed their attention on her.
Ted Cruz, senator for Texas, accused Morrison of promoting soft-on-crime policies, and seemed confused about her work freeing people who were wrongfully convicted.
Nina Morrison was one of four judicial nominees appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday
Morrison and three others appeared before the Senators on Wednesday for confirmation
‘The whole of your record is deeply disturbing,’ Cruz told Morrison.
‘Across this country, Americans are horrified at skyrocketing crime rates, at skyrocketing homicide rates, at skyrocketing burglary rates, at skyrocketing carjacking rates.
‘All of those are the direct result of the policies you’ve spent your entire lifetime advancing.’
Cruz asked Morrison – who was an adviser to progressive Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner’s transition team in 2017 – whether she thought the city was safer with Krasner in charge.
‘I do not consider myself an expert on crime statistics,’ she said.
‘You have no view,’ Cruz interrupted.
‘I can certainly talk about the cases that I’ve worked on in Philadelphia,’ she said.
Ted Cruz, senator for Texas, told Morrison: ‘Americans are horrified at skyrocketing crime rates, at skyrocketing homicide rates, at skyrocketing burglary rates, at skyrocketing carjacking rates. All of those are the direct result of the policies you’ve spent your entire lifetime advancing’
Cruz continued: ‘Why do you keep advising radical district attorneys who let violent criminals go and result in homicide rates skyrocketing?
‘Do you care about the innocent people being killed because of the policies you’re implementing?’
Morrison tried to explain that her work dealt with re-evaluating previous convictions, rather than formulating policies for fresh ones.
She also later pointed out that her work had been praised in Cruz’s home state.
‘In Senator Cruz’s home state of Texas, there was a law passed in the name of one of my former clients to try to make it easier for the wrongly accused to get access to exculpatory evidence because of proven misconduct in that case,’ she said.
‘That was unanimously passed by a primarily Republican legislature.’
Cruz later tweeted: ‘Progressive district attorneys and judges are letting crime run rampant.
‘Murder rates are sky-high. Is that progressive?’
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley told Morrison he planned to oppose her nomination, along with any other nominees the Biden administration puts forward, who are ‘soft on crime.’
Missouri senator Josh Hawley said that Morrison was ‘soft on crime’
‘I will oppose you and anyone else the administration sends to us who do not understand the necessity of the rule of law,’ he said.
Hawley tried to tie Morrison to a decision by a circuit attorney in his state’s second-largest city, St. Louis, to release people who had been arrested during violent protests in the city in 2020 over George Floyd’s murder.
Morrison once wrote an article praising Kim Gardner for her work to overturn the conviction of an innocent murder detainee.
‘In the midst of rioting that convulsed the city of St. Louis, police officers were shot at, rioters threw rocks and gasoline and frozen water bottles, firefighters were assaulted, innocent civilians were assaulted,’ he said.
‘[Gardner] said the police were the ones at fault.
‘Is that the kind of approach that you stand by and think is appropriate for prosecutors to take?’
Morrison said her op-ed that referenced Gardner was specifically about the wrongly convicted man, and pointed out that Republicans in Hawley’s state supported the reopening of the case.
He later called her ‘pro criminal’ and tweeted that he would also oppose any progressive that Biden nominates to the Supreme Court, to take up the seat vacated by retiring justice Stephen Breyer.
‘Another day, another pro-criminal judge nominated by Joe Biden,’ Hawley tweeted.
‘If this is the kind of judge Biden nominates to #SCOTUS, expect a battle.’
And Tom Cotton, senator for Arkansas, referenced one of her clients, Ledell Lee, who was put to death in Arkansas in 2017 for the 1993 murder of a 26-year-old woman, Debra Reese, and previously had been convicted on two rape charges.
Tom Cotton, Arkansas senator, has said he will not confirm any of Biden’s nominees until the Department of Justice agrees to represent a group of U.S. Marshals facing lawsuits in Portland, Oregon, for their actions during the George Floyd protests
But four years after he was executed, a different man’s DNA was found on the murder weapon
‘One of Mr. Lee’s attorneys later admitted that he suffered from a serious drug and alcohol problem and did not provide Mr. Lee with the representation that he was constitutionally entitled to,’ said Morrison.
‘Some of the results were inconclusive, but notably, there was male DNA on the murder weapon that did not come from Mr. Lee.’
Cotton dismissed the DNA evidence, adding: ‘He was convicted on the basis of eyewitness testimony and the possession of Ms. Reese’s stolen property.’
Morrison replied: ‘Eyewitness identification, which you referenced, is actually the single leading proven cause of wrongful convictions.’
Cotton earlier this month announced he would refuse to back any judicial nominees after the Justice Department failed to respond to his demand for answers about its lack of assistance to U.S. Marshals being sued over their defense of the Portland federal courthouse in 2020, during the George Floyd protests.
The DoJ has yet to decide whether to represent the Marshals.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, was angered by the Republicans’ behavior, and singled out Cotton in particular.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced Morrison and praised her work exonerating wrongfully convicted people
‘Republican Senator Tom Cotton is trying to block us from confirming DOJ appointees,’ he said.
‘These cheap partisan games make Americans less safe.
‘But make no mistake: He will lose this dangerous fight, and we will confirm these nominees.’
Schumer, senator for New York, had earlier introduced Morrison, praising her record in his state.
‘I’m honored to introduce Nina Morrison to @JudiciaryDems,’ he said.
‘On my recommendation, she’s @POTUS’s nominee for District Judge for NY’s Eastern District.
‘Not from a big corporate firm, she’s dedicated her career to the @Innocence Project—representing people wrongly convicted of crimes.’
Morrison was supported in the hearing by the Democrat senator for Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse.
He asked Morrison, in a pointed jibe at his Republican colleagues: ‘Does tough on crime include convicting the innocent?’
‘No, senator,’ she replied. ‘It does not.’
