Press release
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. today announced that he will not seek reelection for a fourth term in office, which would begin January 2022. The full text of the D.A.’s memo to the Office’s prosecutors and staff is copied below.
“Representing the People of New York during this pivotal era for our city and our justice system has been the privilege of a lifetime,” said District Attorney Vance. “When I ran for this job in 2009, I said that a District Attorney’s responsibilities should extend beyond obtaining convictions in court, and that a 21st century prosecutor’s mandate is to move our justice system and our community forward. Working in partnership with Manhattan communities, the D.A.’s Office we built together over the last decade has taken us beyond the ambitious blueprint we laid out in 2009.”
“One, we built safer and stronger communities – not just by winning in court, but by making sustained investments in our neighborhoods so that fewer people became involved in the justice system in the first place. Two, we made enduring, systemic reforms – using the power of our discretion to massively reduce our criminal justice footprint and the inequities that underlie unnecessary prosecutions. And three, we modernized our office to future-proof our neighbors against cybercrime, terrorism, trafficking, and other 21st-century threats. Together, we took one of the great public law offices of the 20th century and transformed it for the 21st.”
“I never imagined myself as District Attorney for decades like my predecessors. I never thought of this as my last job, even though it’s the best job and biggest honor I’ll ever have. I said twelve years ago that change is fundamentally good and necessary for any institution. Having secured these lasting impacts in our communities, our public policy, and our crimefighting capacity, the time has come to open the pathway for new leadership at the Manhattan D.A.’s Office.”
“This doesn’t mean the work stops. One of the best parts of the job is that I work with hundreds of the nation’s best attorneys, supported by an exceptional professional staff of hundreds more, who work every day to deliver justice, keep us safe, and leave behind a fairer system than the one we inherited. Over the next nine months we’ll work harder than ever to support New Yorkers and their communities, and to move justice forward in court cases large and small.”
D.A. Vance has led some of the most high-profile and consequential courtroom victories in recent history, including Trump v. Vance and People v. Weinstein, along with aggressive, successful investigations against eleven of the world’s biggest banks. D.A. Vance then directed hundreds of millions of dollars in forfeited proceeds of the economic crimes committed by those banks to 50 community-grounded organizations that are supporting young people, crime survivors, and reentering New Yorkers in underserved Manhattan communities.
D.A. Vance has made justice reform a central mission of the Office. In addition to right-sizing the justice system by slashing the Office’s total prosecutions by 58 percent, D.A. Vance established ground-breaking initiatives that helped end the era of mass incarceration, including New York State’s first-ever: Conviction Integrity Program, College-in-Prison Program, Citywide Supervised Release Program, Implicit Bias Review, and Equity and Social Justice Advisory Board.
Under D.A. Vance’s leadership, the D.A.’s Office repositioned itself to confront contemporary threats to New Yorkers, including international cybercrime, white nationalist terrorism, human trafficking, and the national rape kit backlog. D.A. Vance co-founded and co-chairs Prosecutors Against Gun Violence and the Global Cyber Alliance, and in Washington, D.C., he successfully advocated on behalf of New Yorkers to stop the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act and enact the first-ever Congressional appropriations toward ending the rape kit backlog.
In 2020, D.A. Vance won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Trump v. Vance, which established that Presidents are not immune from criminal process, and People v. Weinstein, a “landmark step” in the field of sex crimes prosecutions. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he proactively consented to the release of more than 300 New Yorkers from Rikers and converted the D.A.’s Office’s West Harlem Youth Opportunity Hub into a major food bank site. Amid mass arrests during peaceful demonstrations against structural racism and police violence over the summer, D.A. Vance declined to prosecute protest cases and established the Equity and Social Justice Advisory Board.
Over the last decade, D.A. Vance has expanded the impact of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office beyond its traditional courtroom role to include investing in underserved communities to prevent crime and justice-system involvement, reforming the criminal justice system to end mass incarceration, and reinventing the Office to take on 21st century threats, such as cybercrime, terrorism, and trafficking.
Below is a summary of select achievements by the Office during D.A. Vance’s consequential tenure:
Building Safer, Stronger Communities
Established the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative to prevent crime and justice-system involvement in historically underserved Manhattan neighborhoods. Invested $250 million seized in D.A.’s investigations against major banks in 50 community-grounded organizations that support young people, crime survivors, and formerly incarcerated New Yorkers.
Co-founded Prosecutors Against Gun Violence to strengthen gun violence laws and prosecutions across the U.S. Dismantled 20 violent street gangs. Led proactive gun trafficking investigations yielding 36 indictments against 94 traffickers and removing more than 1,800 guns from New York City streets.
Tested 55,000 backlogged rape kits across 20 states, resulting in 251 new arrests, 271 new felony prosecutions, 105 new convictions, and counting.
Investigated major banks for falsifying records and violating sanctions, resulting in fines and forfeiture of $14 billion. Prosecuted series of employers for wage theft, resulting in restitution of $7.4 million to workers.
Created the signature NYC youth violence prevention program Saturday Night Lights. Opened Manhattan’s first Family Justice Center and bilingual community office in Washington Heights.
Reforming Our Justice System
Cut the Office’s prosecutions by more than half. Ended the routine prosecution of marijuana smoking and possession, subway fare evasion, unlicensed vending, nonpayment of fines, loitering for prostitution, peaceful protest, and summons cases.
Established Project Reset, Project Green Light, and Manhattan Hope to provide free service interventions in lieu of prosecutions.
Established first Conviction Integrity Program and first implicit bias review on East Coast. Opened first Alternatives to Incarceration Court and hired first immigration-consequences counsel in New York.
Funded New York’s first statewide college-in-prison program, New York City’s citywide supervised release program, and the largest-ever investments by a prosecutor in health care, education, and housing for reentering New Yorkers.
Modernizing the Office
Established internationally renowned cybercrime unit to investigate, prosecute, and prevent complex digital crimes. Built state-of-the-art, 17,000 sq. ft. Manhattan D.A. Cyber Lab, the first in a U.S. prosecutor’s office. Co-founded the Global Cyber Alliance and NYC Cyber Critical Services and Infrastructure Project.
Created the intelligence-driven prosecution model, harnessing data to proactively target crime trends and drive Manhattan shootings down.
Formed the Manhattan D.A. Counterterrorism Program and secured the first-ever state terrorism convictions of both Islamic extremist and white nationalist terrorists.
Created specialized practices being replicated across the U.S., including the Cold Case/Forensic Sciences Unit, Hate Crimes Unit, Antiquities Trafficking Unit, Construction Fraud Task Force, and Crime Strategies Unit.
