James A. Murphy III - Accomplishments As District Attorney

Accomplishments As District Attorney

He has been a leader in establishing misdemeanor and felony drug court for offenders who are addicted to controlled substances or alcohol. He has instituted these courts, along with NY State's Road to Recovery program, for repeat, nonviolent felony offenders. These courts are not available to defendants who are dealers and profiting from the sale of narcotic drugs. During Murphy's tenure, the Saratoga County Drug Treatment Court has diverted hundreds of participants into treatment and away from correctional facilities, helping individuals rejoin the work force and saving incarceration expenses. He works closely with members of the judiciary to appropriately screen addicts for judicial diversion to keep jail cells available for those who commit violent crime.

Murphy has also created specialized domestic violence prosecution courts in the cities of Saratoga Springs, Mechanicville and the town of Clifton Park. Murphy has a unit of special assistant district attorneys and victim advocates to work with victims of domestic violence. Additionally, he has adopted the Integrated Domestic Violence Court model, which allows matrimonial, criminal and family court actions to be consolidated before one judge. This one family-one judge standard for victims of domestic violence has been called one of the "best practices" in NYS by the Center for Court Innovation.

Murphy serves as the chair of the Domestic Violence Task Force, the Crime Victims Advocacy Unit, and the Sexual Assault Forensic Nurse Examiner Program to help victims of rape and sexual abuse. He has developed specialized prosecutorial units, including Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Guns, Gangs and Violent Crime, DWI, White Collar Crime, and Fraud.

During his tenure, Murphy has created a Narcotics and Forfeiture Prosecution Unit and created a Drug Enforcement Task Force of local law enforcement agencies, the Saratoga County Sheriff's Department, and the New York State Police. This initiative developed into a specially designated Northern Branch of the Drug Enforcement Task Force, focusing on the Capital District and Saratoga, Washington, and Warren counties. It is supported in large part by the sheriffs of those counties and brings millions of dollars in forfeited funds to law enforcement and government agencies taken from drug dealers.

On a routine basis, Murphy brings county law enforcement professionals together for collaboration and sharing of equipment and personnel to more efficiently deliver investigative and prosecutorial resources to the residents of Saratoga County, New York.

With the assistance of the Superintendent of the New York State Police, he established the new position of a NYSP Senior Investigator assigned to the District Attorney's Office.

Murphy is a graduate of the FBI National Citizens' Academy, which involved an eight-week curriculum focusing on federal law enforcement issues.

Perhaps the best-known case Murphy prosecuted was against notorious murderer, Sylvain Turcotte, who was sentenced in 1995 to back-to-back life sentences for the brutal murder of his wife and mother-in-law. To this day, this is the single longest sentence in the history of Saratoga County.

Murphy has transformed the district attorney's office from a group of part time assistants with limited technology in 1997 to a large number of professional full-time assistant district attorneys who operate in a state-of-the-art facility.