In the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, it was Cuomo’s last day in office, a time when outgoing governors typically grant commutations. Boudin continually refreshed the governor’s press page, hoping for news.

But the news did not come from the governor’s website. At about 2:30 pm in San Francisco, he received a text from his mother, Kathy Boudin, who had also served prison time in the same incident.

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“David was commuted!” she wrote. “Eligible for parole.”

Boudin excused himself from a Zoom meeting, yelled with joy, found his wife and held her in the hallway.

“We just couldn’t talk,” Boudin recalled in an interview with The Washington Post. “We couldn’t make words come out.”

In his last hours as New York governor, Cuomo commuted the sentences of Gilbert and four others who “demonstrated substantial evidence of rehabilitation and a commitment to their communities,” according to a news release from the governor’s office.

“These clemencies make clear the power of redemption, encourage those who have made mistakes to engage in meaningful rehabilitation, and show New Yorkers that we can work toward a better future,” Cuomo said in a statement.

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Gilbert will now be referred to the New York State Board of Parole, which will consider his release, according to the governor’s office. It added that Gilbert made contributions to AIDS education and prevention programs. He also worked as “a student tutor, law library clerk, paralegal assistant [and] a teacher’s aide,” the statement adds.

Boudin, who is right now facing a recall campaign, was elected as San Francisco’s top prosecutor in 2019 after running on a platform of decarcerating jails, moving away from a cash bail system, and holding police officers accountable for misconduct. He is among a class of so-called progressive prosecutors, including Larry Krasner in Philadelphia and Kim Foxx in Chicago, who were elected in recent years after pledging to enact criminal justice reforms.

During his ascension to San Francisco district attorney — a position formerly occupied by Vice President Harris — Boudin invoked his father’s incarceration as a reason he assumed the role of prosecutor, and his relationship with his father has been intertwined in his political narrative.

“Growing up, I had to go through a metal detector and steel gates just to give my parents a hug,” Boudin said in a 2019 campaign video.

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Boudin, 41, was a baby when the robbery took place. David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, who were members of the Weather Underground, a radical left-wing militant group, were both convicted of felony murder for their role in the 1981 armed robbery of a Brink’s armored car that left two Nyack, NY, police officers and a security guard dead. Although they did not carry out the murders themselves, Gilbert and Boudin were in the getaway vehicle.

Kathy Boudin was released from prison in 2003 and went on to become a professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work.

Chesa Boudin told The Post that he had been trying to have his father’s sentence commuted for years. He and his family applied when former governor David Paterson left office in 2010, and again in 2020 during the pandemic. They reapplied for clemency again this year.

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“We felt like the governor’s people were paying attention,” Boudin said. “But one never really knows with these things.”

While Boudin said he was grateful his father had finally been granted clemency, he acknowledged on Twitter that “his crime devastated many families.” News of the clemency decision invited criticism from some of those victims on Monday.

“It’s absurd,” Arthur Keenan Jr., a retired detective with the Nyack Police Department who was wounded in the shootout, told the New York Times.

Keenan added that Cuomo “is stabbing all of law enforcement in the back, and when I say all, I’m talking about federal, state, local — all across the whole country — because he’s a traitor.”

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Ed Day, the elected leader of Rockland County, where Nyack is located, said that Cuomo had “debased himself,” according to the Times.

“As if victimizing 11 women, including members of his own staff, was not despicable enough, his commutation of the 75-years-to-life sentence of David Gilbert is a further assault on the people of Rockland and New York State,” Day said in a statement, the Times reported. “Andrew Cuomo continues to focus on the well-being of murderers rather than the victims of these horrible offenses.”

Despite those criticisms, Boudin said the news felt “like a weight I’ve been carrying my whole had been lifted.”

He thought about the prospect of sharing “basic daily joy” with his father, and of being able to introduce him to his yet-to-be-born child.

“Not having to take my child through metal detectors and steel gates to meet their grandfather was just one of the most amazing gifts I could have imagined,” he said. “It also made me think about those other families and how nothing will ever make them whole again, and how they will continue to live with the pain and loss that was caused by my parents’ crime.”

The post San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin was 3 when his dad went to jail. Cuomo simply granted his father clemency. appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco District Attorney’s father Chesa Boudin received grace from outgoing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday, the governor’s office said.

David Gilbert, 76, has been in jail for most of his life, Boudin tweeted Monday night after the pardon.

“My heart is bursting,” said Boudin, adding that it is the eve of his first child’s birth.

“He never intended anything bad, but his crime has devastated many families,” said Boudin. “My heart breaks for the families who can never get their loved ones back.”

According to Cuomo’s office, Gilbert was convicted of three second-degree murder and four first-degree robbery in 1983.

“Since I appreciate his desire for his father’s release, he should think long and hard about the families and the pain they endured for 40 years,” said Mike Lawler, Republican MP for New York State. “It was a disgusting last act of the governor that commuted David Gilbert’s judgment.”

The President of the Police Officers Association of San Francisco agrees, saying, “While Chesa Boudin continues to use his influence to campaign for the release of his biological father, the victims continue to experience immense loss.”

Gilbert was sentenced to 75 years for life and served 40 years. The governor’s office said Gilbert and five other Cuomo pardons had shown “substantial evidence of rehabilitation and commitment to their communities.”

Gilbert was not the killer but the driver in the 1981 robbery of Nanuet National Bank that killed a Brink armored car guard and two police officers, according to a terrorism-related report from New York State.

During his imprisonment, Gilbert contributed to programs related to AIDS education and prevention, including serving as a student tutor, legal library clerk, paralegal, and teaching assistant, among other things.

The parole board examines Gilbert’s case and can grant him parole. Lawler says he plans to block his release.

“These mercies show the power of salvation, encourage those who have made mistakes to undergo meaningful rehabilitation, and show New Yorkers that we can work toward a better future,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The post San Francisco DA’s Father Granted Clemency by Outgoing NY Gov. Cuomo – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.