This is a form for organizations to fill out to sign onto the public community letter to DA Alvin Bragg asking that he drop the charges against Tracy McCarter, who is being prosecuted for her survival of domestic violence. The most recent list of signatories is at the bottom and will be updated periodically.

The full text of the letter is:

Dear Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg,

We the undersigned organizations are writing to urge you to drop the charges against Tracy McCarter, who is being criminalized for her survival of domestic violence.

We are heartened to hear of your public commitment to reduce your Office’s prosecution rate. The effects of such a policy could spare millions of New Yorkers and their families from emotional, physical and financial distress.

However, while you work to reduce the stream of New Yorkers being incarcerated for “non-violent” charges, we urge you to reconsider your office’s stance of prosecuting criminalized survivors of gender-based violence and others charged for so-called violent offenses.

It’s all too common for survivors of domestic violence to be prosecuted for experiencing domestic violence and daring to survive it. A national study found that 86% of women who have ever been jailed also report surviving sexual assault and 77% percent have experienced partner violence. Tracy McCarter’s prosecution is an egregious example of this. Ms. McCarter, a grandmother, nurse and Black woman, has already endured seven months of incarceration at Rikers Island during a deadly pandemic, 17 months on an electronic ankle shackle, and immeasurable trauma.

Being subjected to your office’s unjust prosecution has been retraumatizing for Tracy, and has negatively affected her family, job, education, and ability to move around safely in the city she calls home.

During your campaign, you spoke out against the prosecution of Tracy McCarter, unequivocally committing to #StandWithTracy and stating that “[p]rosecuting a domestic violence survivor who acted in self-defense is unjust.” We demand you stand by the campaign promise you made to “decline to prosecute survivors of domestic violence.”

Please correct the grave misstep that occurred in McCarter’s prosecution, and acknowledge the evidence and history of domestic violence that supported McCarter’s self-defense claims against abuse. We urge you to do the right thing: Stand with survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, and with other incarcerated people surviving and convicted of acts of violence, and use your prosecutorial discretion to drop her charges TODAY.

Sincerely,

Color of Change
Survived and Punished NY
5 Boro Defenders
API Chaya
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Campaign to Free Maddesyn George
Center for Constitutional Rights
Coalition Against Trafficking In Women
Collective Future Fund
Court Watch NYC of Envision Freedom Fund
Covid Bail Out NYC
Coyote RI
Decriminalize Sex Work
Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee NYC
Domestic Workers United
Dream Corps JUSTICE
Equinox, Inc.
FairHaven Farm
FREEDOM AGENDA
Freedom To Thrive
Girls Educational and Mentoring Service (GEMS)
Girls for Gender Equity
Health Justice
Her Justice
Hope's Door
Hudson River Doulas
Law Office of Rosemarie Barnett PLLC
Love & Protect
Ms. Foundation for Women
New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault
New York University School of Law Black Allied Law Students Association (BALSA)
Nicole Addimando Community Defense Committee
NYC-DSA Racial Justice Working Group
Parole Preparation Project
Police Reform Organizing Project
Policing and Social Justice Project
Project Hajra
Queer Crescent
Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign
Repro Legal Defense Fund
Returning Hope
Safe Horizon
Sakhi for South Asian Women
Sowing Wildflowers
Support Ho(s)e Collective
Survivors Justice Project
Syracuse Peace Council
The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
The Retreat
The SOAR Institute
Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan
Vera House, Inc.
Violence Intervention Program
VOCAL-NY
Women & Justice Project
Women's Community Justice Association
Women's Prison Association
Young Long Island for Justice