The
“Daniel Law”
in honor of the son of Latina federal judge Esther Salas, shot to death last summer, has come into force in the state of New Jersey, but the magistrate says it is not enough and calls for greater protections for the system judicial throughout the country.
On July 19, a misogynist attorney ambushed the judge's family in New Jersey.
Disguised as a FedEx worker,
the killer knocked on the door of the house and shot
Salas's son and husband.
She was unharmed because she was in the basement of the house at the time of the attack.
Daniel, 20, died of a bullet in the chest.
Mark Anderl, the judge's husband, was seriously injured.
The killer, who was found dead a day later, was identified by the FBI as Roy Den Hollander.
He was a well-known anti-feminist lawyer who was allegedly angry at the judge for a ruling.
Following the crime, police discovered that Hollander was aiming to attack other judges.
"We must act immediately," Salas warned in an interview with NBC News' Morning Joe.
"We can't let something like this happen to another family," he
added.
Federal judges, Salas said, understand what is wrong with their work and that sometimes some people will not agree with their decisions.
"It is a risk that we are willing to take to do the right thing, to do justice," emphasized the judge, who revealed that the magistrates receive an "astronomical" number of threats.
"What we do not accept and cannot accept is that, because of the work we are doing, we are going to be shot, literally shot in our homes on a Sunday at 5 in the afternoon," concluded Salas.
"I heard the sound of bullets and someone screaming": Judge Esther Salas talks about the murder of her son
Aug. 3, 202001: 27
“That monster had a FedEx package in his hand and opened fire.
Daniel, being Daniel, protected his father, ”the judge recounted in a moving nine-minute public statement in August.
Daniel was the couple's only child and had just celebrated his 20th birthday. His death prompted the enactment of a law named in his honor that establishes that it is a
crime to publish personal information of New Jersey judges and law enforcement officials
including their telephone numbers and address.
Governor Phil Murphy signed it on November 20.
New details come to light about the perpetrator of the attack on the family of Latina judge Esther Salas
July 22, 202002: 04
Salas is now calling for the “Daniel Law” to reach beyond New Jersey
and for the personal information of officials to be protected nationwide.
"Our federal government has a duty to protect our federal judges," he said.
In 2015, 926 threats were registered with the United States Marshals Service, which protects members of the judiciary.
In 2019, there were 4,449 threats, the judge said.
Daniel's tragedy is not the first.
Salas recalled that
since 1979 four federal judges have been assassinated in the United States
.
In 2005, federal judge Joan Lefkow found her husband and mother murdered in the basement of their home in Chicago.
The killer, according to the investigation, had been part of a malpractice case that Lefknow had dismissed.
Salas is the first Hispanic woman to serve as a judge in federal court in New Jersey, in the Newark District Court.
The lawyer who attacked the family, according to the investigation, was well known in New York and had a long anti-feminist legal record.
In recent years, she had published thousands of articles on the internet denouncing feminism and railing against it.
The judge said that they try to cope with what happened as best they can, "minute by minute."
Her husband, Mark, has had a medical setback and may need to be operated on again for injuries sustained in the attack.
So far, it has already been 13 interventions.
The request for protections is not limited to cutting off the flow of personal information from the magistrates.
The judge points out that
security around the federal courts should be improved
as well as allocating resources to maintain the protection system.
"If what happened to my son is not the worst nightmare, what else could happen if we do not do something to protect our judges," he emphasized.
With information from Morning Joe, NBC News.