Pace University News

Haub Law Professor Bennett Gershman also writes an op-ed in amNewYork warning about President Trump’s escalating use of the death penalty. He traces Trump’s long history with capital punishment — from the Central Park Five ads to a surge of federal executions — and argues that his renewed push represents a dangerous expansion of prosecutorial power and political theater. In Roll Call, Professor Gershman comments on a controversial Senate payout provision, noting that the structure defies typical legal concepts and raises serious concerns about corruption and prosecutorial integrity.

In Gothamist, Haub Law Professor Emeritus Michael Mushlin is credited as a key architect behind a proposal that would require New York judges to spend a day visiting prisons and jails before making detention and sentencing decisions. Mushlin, one of the nation’s leading experts on prisoners’ rights law, convened a committee of judges and practitioners to strengthen the existing, rarely enforced visitation rule. The updated proposal is designed to ensure judges better understand the conditions they are consigning people to when they impose custodial sentences.

Dyson Political Science Professor Laura Tamman remains an essential voice in coverage of New York City’s political landscape. In Lohud, she discusses how Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani galvanized young voters by translating policy proposals into direct, concrete messages that can overcome generational distrust in government.

In Newsday, Dyson Political Science Professor Laura Tamman questions whether Mayor Eric Adams can be trusted to do the right thing as his term winds down amid persistent allegations of corruption and self-dealing. She also joined NY1’s Inside City Hall with Errol Louis to analyze Mamdani’s early City Hall appointments and what they signal about his transition priorities.

In amNewYork, Pace Haub Law Professor Bennett Gershman pens a powerful op-ed examining how President Donald Trump’s towering monuments, incendiary rhetoric, and erosion of democratic norms signal a deeper moral and structural deterioration within American civic life. Professor Gershman writes that this sweeping “uglification” is reshaping the nation’s public landscape and unsettling the democratic foundations that once held firm.