Retired Navy Captain Art Cody Hired as Legal Director at the NYSDA Veterans Defense Program

ALBANY, NY (05/02/2014)(readMedia)-- Art Cody has been named Legal Director of the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) Veterans Defense Program. Cody, a 1982 West Point graduate, began his career as a helicopter pilot in the US Army. Upon completion of his active duty Army service, Cody transitioned to the Navy Reserve where he flew strike rescue and special operations missions. In addition to his civilian legal practice, as a military reservist he has served worldwide and participated in a variety of combat operations that include those aboard the USS Enterprise immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Most recently he was mobilized for Operation Enduring Freedom in 2011, serving for one year at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan as Staff Director of the Interagency Rule of Law Section. For his work in Afghanistan, he earned the Bronze Star Medal as well as the State Department's Meritorious Service Award. His other awards and decorations include the Army Aviator's badge, Naval Aviator's wings, Army Parachutist's badge, German Army Parachutist's badge, and the Meritorious Service Medal. He retired from the Navy in 2012 after 30 years of service.

As a civilian lawyer, while working on civil matters at law firms in New York City, Cody was also primary counsel on an Alabama state post-conviction/federal habeas case (Gaddy v. Allen) beginning in 2000; he worked on the case for over a decade. During that time, he investigated mitigating circumstances including PTSD. The Association of the Bar of the City of New York awarded him its Thurgood Marshall Award for Capital Representation in 2008. He has other death penalty representation experience as well, and has written extensively on capital punishment, including a chapter entitled "Afghanistan's Death Penalty at the Crossroads," in Capital Punishment: New Perspectives, published by Centre for Capital Punishment Studies, Westminster, University Law School, London (2013).

In addition to his degree from West Point, he holds a Master's Degree from the University of Southern California (1993) and graduated magna cum laude from Notre Dame Law School where he was the Executive Editor of the Notre Dame Law Review (1996).

The skills and experience Cody brings to NYSDA's Veterans Defense Program bring great promise to the new initiative. Its goal is to bring about more informed representation of military personnel and veterans who become involved in state criminal or family court matters, focusing on how military service may have contributed to behaviors that lead such clients into court and how to effectively address clients' needs in a way that benefits them and furthers justice.