New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has appointed ’12 alumna Claudia Joy Demitro to a working group that will explore the scope and appropriate use of prosecutorial discretion in marijuana-related cases in municipal courts, The Star-Ledger reported on July 28.

Demitro, a deputy attorney general in the state’s Division of Criminal Justice, joins other prosecutors, police officials, public defenders, representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP and Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora on the working group.

The working group is expected to issue recommendations in late August on how municipal prosecutors under Grewal’s supervision can contribute responsibly to “the progressive solutions we are seeking,” the attorney general said in a statement published in The Star-Ledger. In March, Gov. Phil Murphy issued an executive order that expanded the state’s medical marijuana program.  

Grewal has also urged municipal prosecutors to adjourn marijuana-related prosecutions until September, when New Jersey lawmakers are expected to consider legislation to legalize the use of marijuana by adults.

Demitro, a former editor of the Drexel Law Review, has represented the Division of Criminal Justice in numerous matters, including two cases she argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court in 2017, both of which she won with unanimous rulings.