Obituary

Sarah Betsy Fuller died April 2 at Cayuga Medical Center following a long battle with breast cancer. She was 58. Fuller was the lead attorney in a federal case that established the right of Native Americans to practice their religion freely in all 70 Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) prisons in New York state. She was honored by the Onondaga Nation for her work and invited by the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations, to be part of a delegation giving testimony at a United Nations inquiry into the status of Native Americans.

Fuller also was active in bringing to light the barbaric punishment in New York state of giving some prisoners only bread and water. And she successfully challenged a practice at Albion state prison in which women prisoners were videotaped by guards while they were strip searched. Her efforts led to major reform in all DOCS New York state prisons.

A longtime lawyer with Ithaca-based Prisoners Legal Services of New York, Fuller was a faculty member at Cornell Law School's Legal Aid Clinic starting in 1978 and taught courses in trial advocacy and other subjects for many years, most recently this past fall. "Betsy was one of those rare people who lived her beliefs," said Glenn Galbreath, a senior lecturer at the Law School who co-taught courses with Fuller. "She was a great teacher and was liked very much by the students," said law professor Faust Rossi, who also co-taught with Fuller. Barry Strom, a senior lecturer in the school's Legal Aid Clinic, said, "She was an excellent clinical supervisor, helping students grow and improve, and her commitment to social justice issues was contagious." And Jane Marie Law, professor of world religions at Cornell, who spoke at the funeral April 23 at Temple Beth-El in Ithaca, said Fuller had told her she believed a society is judged not by its artistic or scientific achievements but "by how it treats its prisoners."

Fuller earned her A.B. degree at Cornell in 1968, a master's in sociology at the University of Wisconsin in 1971 and a law degree at Stanford University in 1974. She directed Syracuse University College of Law's public interest law clinic in the 1990s. A Fulbright scholar at Technical University of El Salvador in 2000-01, she developed a clinical legal program for its law school.

Fuller is survived by her husband, Ronald, three children, Jonah, Cecily and Gabriel, and a grandchild, Abigail. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance, Temple Beth-El or the charity of one's choice.