The Jester's Exit

Justice Roberto A. Rivera-Soto of the New Jersey Supreme Court
by Roslyn F. Martorano


Roslyn Martorano, a 2011 graduate of Albany Law School where she was an Associate Editor of the Albany Law Review, is the Graduate Executive Director of the Center and its immediate past Executive Director. She was awarded a New York State Senate Fellowship and currently works with Senator Kemp Hannon, Chair of the Standing Committee on Health.


In 2004, New Jersey Governor McGreevey shocked commentators when he appointed the first Hispanic Justice to the state's Supreme Court, Roberto A. Rivera-Soto. Though he came to the court from an atypical personal, political, and professional background, Justice Rivera-Soto soon found his voice and divided the court.


In criminal cases resulting in divided decisions, he is the court’s great, and often lone, dissenter. In criminal cases involving state constitutional issues, and again resulting in divided decisions, he votes almost exclusively to benefit the prosecutors’ efforts. Unfortunately, his legacy will forever intertwine with the national sideshow about the politically charged and immature machinations surrounding judicial selection for the New Jersey Supreme Court.*
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* Citations to materials listed in this introduction, as well as Appendices A, B, and C, are available in the paper.

Read the entire paper HERE.

The Treatment of Criminal Cases by the High Courts of Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey

A Presentation on Preliminary Observations of the Patterns Emerging  from the Data, 2005-2010

By Roslyn Fuller

In this PowerPoint presentation, Roslyn Fuller, a third-year student at Albany Law School, a Senior Editor of the Law Review, and Co-Executive Director of the Center, compares the treatment of criminal cases by the high courts of Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey.  Among other things, the presentation looks at the members of the three tribunals, with particular attention to the experience of each of them with criminal law. Ultimately, the presentation examines data based on more than 200 divided criminal decisions over six years, 2005 through 2010, and offers initial observations based on the decisional and voting patterns within the three state supreme courts.

To view the full presentation, click here --then, to view the slide show, click Download + Slide Show + From the Beginning.