The New York Police on Wednesday found the body of Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first Muslim woman judge in the United States, in the Hudson River in Manhattan. The police said her body bore no signs of injury or trauma. Although her death appeared to be a suicide, the police are yet to confirm this.
The husband of the 65-year-old judge had filed a missing person report with the police on Tuesday, reported The Telegraph. The police pulled out her body from the water around 1.45 pm [local time] on Wednesday and her family identified her.
Abdus-Salaam was also the first black woman to be a judge at the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. Born in Washington DC, Abdus-Salaam was elected as a judge in New York City in 1991. Two years later, she was elected to New York County’s Supreme Court. In 2013, Abdus-Salaam was appointed to the Court of Appeals.
Condolences poured in from the judges’ fraternity as well as from administrative leaders. Governor Andrew Cuomo, who described Abdus-Salaam as a trailblazer, said, “I was proud to appoint her to the state’s highest court and am deeply saddened by her passing. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I extend my deepest sympathies to her family, loved ones and colleagues during this trying and difficult time.”
The organisation Lamda Legal said her legacy will continue to live on. “We owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude,” it said in a statement. Chief judge Janet DiFiore was quoted by The Guardian as saying, “Her personal warmth, uncompromising sense of fairness and bright legal mind were an inspiration to all of us who had the good fortune to know her.”
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