About Ying Minakan-Stafford

As a federal criminal defense attorney and mitigation specialist, I focus on complex, high‑stakes cases where a client’s life story and the record’s details can fundamentally change the outcome. I have been part of federal litigation teams since the 1990s—from assisting on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial and multi‑billion‑dollar fraud prosecutions.

My practice spans the full life cycle of federal cases: pre‑suit and pre‑indictment investigations, capital review, trial, sentencing, resentencing, and post‑conviction and appellate work. I am known for rapidly mastering new technical and legal subject matter and for turning dense records, expert reports, and precedent into clear, persuasive trial themes, sentencing presentations. I regularly work with forensic, psychological, and other scientific experts; manage large, technical records in litigation databases; and coordinate multi‑lawyer and multi‑expert teams over multi‑year matters to keep the narrative, proof, and law aligned.

Over the course of my career, I have helped obtain time‑served or term‑of‑years sentences in multiple death‑eligible cases, including William Skinner (74‑month time‑served sentence at original sentencing and again on remand) and Alfredo Rodriguez (time‑served disposition after capital review and a plea to lesser charges). I have helped convert death‑eligible homicide exposures into determinate terms, such as a 17‑year sentence in United States v. Joseph Biggs and a 7‑year sentence in the Nico Burell case, through cooperation strategy, motion practice, and robust mitigation. Representative capital matters also include helping to secure a 45‑year term instead of a possible death sentence for alleged South Side Cartel leader Farad Roland, after mitigation investigation proved intellectual disability and barred the federal death penalty, and then resolving the case through a plea in federal court in New Jersey. In United States v. Vincent Basciano, I served as co‑counsel in an authorized federal death‑penalty trial for the alleged head of the Bonanno crime family; after a full penalty‑phase presentation, the jury returned a unanimous life verdict.

My work also includes securing life verdicts for Ronald Mallay and other death‑eligible clients in multi‑murder racketeering prosecutions, and achieving withdrawal of the federal death notice in United States v. Jairo Zapata through record‑based challenges under the Department of Justice’s Capital Case Protocol. Outside the capital context, I have represented defendants in complex fraud, Ponzi‑scheme, and public‑corruption prosecutions—including a $14‑million Ponzi scheme in United States v. Joseph Mazella and a tax‑evasion and union‑annuity case in United States v. Kenneth Wynder—and obtained a full acquittal in a New York cyber sex‑sting trial, People v. Edward Mclean, after roughly two hours of jury deliberation.

Across all of these matters, I am a relentlessly results‑oriented advocate who also believes that every client is more than the allegations in an indictment. Whether I am challenging an illegal re‑entry indictment or preparing a capital sentencing presentation, I work to ensure that each client’s story is told with the dignity and compassion it deserves, grounded in a thorough command of the record and the law.

PLEASE NOTE: I do not currently practice in New York State. I am currently admitted only in the Southern District of New York