NEW YORK (AP) — Police say there have been no signs of criminality in the death of the first black woman appointed to New York state’s highest court.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine what caused the death 65-year-old Sheila Abdus-Salaam.
The New York City police harbor unit retrieved her body from the Hudson River in Manhattan on Wednesday, a day after she was reported missing.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who appointed Abdus-Salaam to the state’s Court of Appeals in 2013, called her a “trailblazing jurist.”
Abdus-Salaam graduated from Barnard College and received her law degree from Columbia Law School.
She started her career as a staff attorney for East Brooklyn Legal Services. She served as a judge in Manhattan state Supreme Court for 14 years.
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