THE SSS NEW INDIAN EXPRESS City Lawyer in Us Leadership Program By Express News Service “CHENNAL | Published: 12th March 2014 07:27 AM ‘Advocate and media personality Sanjay Pinto is back to Chennai after representing India in the US State Department's International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) on the topic ‘Rule af Law & Judicial Reforms’. Funded by the US State Department, the three-week long professional exchange program for emerging international leaders and professionals has tap world leaders like Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pratibha Patil on its alumni list The program on Judicial Reforms involved extensive meetings with top US officals, judges, attorneys and civil rights activists in Washington DC. Selected by the US Embassy. Pinto was the lone representative from India in the delegation that comprised lawyers from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Visits to the US Supreme Court, Federal Judicial Centre as well as meetings at the American Bar Association and witnessing ongoing criminal trials and multi door dispute resolution sittings were the highlights of the trip, according to Pinto Interestingly, from a discussion on capital punishment, officials from the Federal Judicial Centre and the Death Penalty Representation Project of the American Bar Association felt that convicts on death row “have a case" if there is an inordinate delay in deciding their mercy pleas, revealed Pinto “The Chief of the Defender Service was quite impressed to hear about judicial activism in India, especially the landmark SC commandments on arrest in the DK Basu Case,” said Pinto. “She has asked me to send her a copy of the judgment to explore the possibility of implementing similar safeguards in the US.~ The participants have also launched a network of lawyers — South Asian Law Team (SALT) — to exchange notes and collaborate on legal issues in the future