Dora Irizarry

Dora L. Irizarry is a Federal Judge in New York. She was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, on January 26, 1955, and was raised in the Bronx in New York City. She attended the Bronx High School of Science and went on to graduate from Yale University in 1976 and Columbia University Law School in 1979.^[1] After law school, she worked as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx and Manhattan. Irizarry said she wanted to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods she grew up in, and specialized in drug and narcotics cases.

She was appointed a New York City Criminal Court Judge by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and then a Judge of the New York Court of Claims by Governor George Pataki. As a Court of Claims Judge she served as an Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, sitting in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a state judge in New York.

In 2002, Irizarry resigned from her judgeship to become the Republican nominee for Attorney General of New York, challenging Democratic incumbent Eliot Spitzer. She lost the race by a 66%-30% margin, but ran a strong race in upstate New York. Irizarry is the first Latina to seek statewide office in New York State. After the election, she entered into private practice with the firm of Hoguet, Newman & Regal, LLP in Manhattan.^[1]

In 2003, Irizarry was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as a Federal District Court Judge in the Eastern District of New York. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2004 and became the first Hispanic judge in the Eastern District.^[1] She sits in Brooklyn.

On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, Judge Irizarry sentenced Islamist militant and engineer Abdul Kadir, 58, of Guyana, to life in prison after the jury found him and co-defendant Russel Defreitas, a U.S. citizen born in Guyana who awaits sentencing, guilty of planning to bomb New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

2002 NYS Republican ticket

• Governor: George Pataki
• Lieutenant Governor: Mary Donohue
• Comptroller: John Faso
• Attorney General: Dora Irizarry

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} A Conversation with the Honorable Dora L. Irizarry, District Judge Accessed 2009-06-29

Preceded by Dennis Vacco

Republican Nominee for New York State Attorney General 2002

Succeeded by Jeanine Pirro

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Name	Irizarry, Dora
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Date of birth	1955
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