Sonia Kumar is a senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland. Her work focuses on advancing racial justice and combating abuses in the criminal legal system and prisons. She is deeply committed to legal advocacy that shifts power and builds partnerships between people resisting oppressive systems and supporters with access to resources.
For the last decade, Sonia has had the privilege of working closely with people serving life sentences in their efforts to obtain their freedom and people who want to build a system of justice that brings more healing and closure to all. She was a lead attorney on litigation exposing the role of medical examiner determinations in perpetuating police violence, litigation brought on behalf of children sentenced to lifetime incarceration, and the author of several reports documenting racial disparities in marijuana arrests, police violence, and life sentences. She is a co-founder of the Maryland Parole Partnership and the Lifer Family Support Network and serves on the Board of Directors for the Maryland Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
She is a graduate of the University of Maryland and Yale Law School, and a former law clerk to the honorable U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson in Montgomery, Alabama.
Amy Cruice is the legal program manager for the ACLU of Maryland. She oversees case investigation, provides litigation support to attorneys, assists with oversight of volunteers and law clerks, and places cases with pro bono law firms. In addition, she organizes the ACLU’s Election Protection campaign for every statewide and national election. She is also the ACLU representative on the Baltimore Civilian Review Board, where she has supported efforts by Board members to create a more impactful organization that is transparent to the Baltimore community.
Amy began her career with the ACLU as a case investigator/community organizer on the Eastern Shore, focusing on race and poverty issues. She has a Bachelors of Arts in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University. In 2018, she received the “Fannie Lou Hamer Award” from the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Anne Arundel County.
During these difficult times, the ACLU of Maryland is here to defend and protect our civil rights and civil liberties. We are providing guidance to our elected officials, so they can craft a COVID-19 response that is compassionate and protects the populations most vulnerable to harm, including immigrants and those caught in the legal justice system – as well as all Maryland voters. As always, we will provide people with action items you can do to support this vital work.
This episode features several ACLU of Maryland experts: Sonia Kumar, senior staff attorney; Amy Cruice, legal program manager and director of our Election Protection Program; and Nick Taichi Steiner, staff attorney.
Produced, edited, and hosted by:Amber Taylor, digital communications strategist, ACLU of Maryland
This podcast was recorded on Piscataway land.
Thinking Freely, ACLU of Maryland's podcast, will inform Marylanders about what's happening politically – from the courts to the streets – so they can get involved and realize a more equitable Maryland for all.
