Editor's foreword.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Author: Bonventre, Vincent Martin
• Date: 22 June 2010

This is the fifteenth annual issue of State Constitutional Commentary. The first one included a project providing judicial profiles of each member of New York State's highest court. Students on the Albany Law Review, which publishes this journal as a special issue each year, authored articles exploring the voting patterns and ideological and jurisprudential leanings of each Court of Appeals Judge.

A similar project was undertaken by the Albany Law Review this year. This time, however, that project was the centerpiece of another inaugural special issue: New York Appeals. (1) That project and the entire new special issue represent particularly valuable contributions to the scholarly--and practical--literature on understanding and practicing law in New York State

State Constitutional Commentary has spawned yet another special undertaking to commence next year. This year's Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke Symposium focused on the problem of wrongful convictions. This symposium made clear the absence of, and need for, a law review or similar periodical devoted to the seemingly countless and unexplored aspects of the failings of the American adversarial system of criminal prosecutions. As a result of what became apparent from this year's Cooke Symposium--as well as the extraordinary interest shown in the symposium and the subject generally--the Albany Law Review has decided to inaugurate yet another special annual issue. This one will be devoted to wrongful convictions and related injustices.

Commencing this coming academic year, the law review will be publishing Miscarriages of Justice. This special issue will be undertaken in a long overdue collaboration with the School of Criminal Justice of the University at Albany. Indeed, James R. Acker, Distinguished Teaching Professor at the School of Criminal Justice, was our primary source of advice in planning the symposium. He has been, and will continue to be, our primary source of guidance for the new special issue.

The symposium itself, "Wrongful Convictions: Understanding and Addressing Criminal Injustice," was the fourth such event (2) held under the auspices of State Constitutional Commentary in honor of the late, beloved chief judge of New York. (3) It more than measured up to the previous three. The annual Cooke Symposium has truly become a highlight of the academic year for Albany Law School, the New York bench and bar, and state court scholars nationwide.

Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of the State of New York and its highest court, the Court of Appeals, moderated the Wrongful Convictions symposium. He opened with a moving tribute to his...