NEW SCOTLAND — David P. Miranda, of Voorheesville, assumed the office of president of the New York State Bar Association this week, after 25 years as a member. During his year in office, Miranda will oversee a committee to review the state constitution before voters decide in November 2017 whether or not to hold a constitutional convention.

“I want the bar association to be a productive part of the dialogue,” Miranda told The Enterprise.

The state constitution describes “things that affect everyday life, like the court system, ways of financing local government, and keeping the Adirondacks live,” Miranda said.

The bar association will use a balanced approach as it reviews the constitution, he said.

“I’m not looking at this with a preconceived agenda,” Miranda said. Association members from both sides of the aisle — prosecutors and defenders, and those in both corporate and public practice — will be asked to contribute, he said.

Custodial reform

A day after taking office, Miranda, along with the former association president, Glenn Lau-Kee; State District Attorneys Association President Frank A. Sedita III; and the Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck announced their agreement on a bill to require custodial interrogations to be recorded “to protect the innocent and…convict the guilty.”

The legislative proposal is meant to reduce wrongful convictions, Miranda told The Enterprise. The bill promotes uniform law enforcement and would require blind or double-blind identification procedures when asking a victim or witness to identify a suspect, according to the joint statement. A double-blind procedure requires that an officer who does not know what the suspect looks like show a witness pictures of possible suspects one at a time, rather than displaying several pictures at once.

Scheck helped found the Innocence Project in 1992 to exonerate, through DNA testing, wrongfully convicted people — freeing over 300 so far — and reforming the system to prevent injustice.

According to the Innocence Project’s website, a recent field study conducted by the American Judicature Society indicated that the double-blind sequential technique was shown to dramatically reduce eyewitness misidentification. The results of the study showed that, when witnesses viewed a group of pictures at once, they may have selected the face of someone who most resembled their memory of a suspect, even if the wrong photo were shown.

Miranda told The Enterprise that the state bar association has “led the charge” on custodial reform.

“It’s something our organization has been working on for many years,” he said.

“We respectfully call upon the governor, the legislative leaders and the entire legislature to enact this proposal this year,” the joint statement said.

Technology inclusion

In his private practice, Miranda represents technology companies, he said.

“I always wanted to contribute to the bar association,” he said. “I always helped it be a little more on the cutting edge,” he said, noting that the association had updated its website and used it to disseminate information to its members.

Lawyers are often slow to accept change like new technologies, he said.

“Our clients use technology,” Miranda said. Attorneys must now get information and communicate on the Internet, also, he said.

The association is working with the court system, favoring the electronic filing of documents, Miranda said. Within the bar association, he will work to have members “do a better job of using technology and social media” for projects and proposals, he said, to “enhance what we’re already doing in that regard.”

Serving as president

“It’s a wonderful honor and opportunity for me,” Miranda told The Enterprise. “It is the largest voluntary state bar association in the country,” he said. The New York association has 74,000 members.

Miranda, 51, is a partner at Heslin Rothenberg Farley and Mesiti, a firm that specializes in intellectual property law.

Miranda is a past president of the Albany County Bar Association. He will perform his duties with the state bar association in the Capital Region.

“It’s based in Albany. I’m an Albany attorney,” he said, noting that many past presidents of the association did not practice here.
“It’s been a great personal and professional experience for me to be involved with the bar association,” he said.