A band of New York Democrat lawmakers is putting the pressure on Albany to support a proposal being pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul to reform the state’s maligned evidence laws — which critics have slammed as being “pro-criminal.”
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) penned a stern letter calling on Empire State pols to stand up for victims of crime and adjust the discovery mandates, which fail to “balance the rights of the accused” with the need to “maintain public safety.”
He is joined by Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Laura Gillen (D-NY) on the letter.
The current statutes passed in 2019 create situations where entire cases can get tossed based on missing and tardily-entered pieces of evidence called discovery, the pols allege.
“This rigid standard has resulted in thousands of dismissals of criminal cases each year, including serious cases, often with no regard to the merits or fairness of the original charge,” the group of pols writes.
The reps specifically call for action on discovery that includes three major provisions covered by Hochul’s proposal:
- Require that defendants show they were “prejudiced” by prosecutors failing to turn over evidence in order for a case to be wholly dismissed instead of remedied;
- Requiring defendants to challenge disagreements over discovery with 35 days of prosecutors certifying they’ve turned everything over; and
- Clarify that prosecutors only have to turn over materials “directly relevant to the charges” in a case instead of the much broader standard of turning over all materials “related to” a case, as the statute is written now
The letter comes amid bipartisan calls to reform the evidence-related mandates.
“This is not a matter of fairness; it is a consequence of an overly broad and inflexible statute that fails to balance the rights of the accused with the need to protect victims and maintain public safety,” the letter reads.
Hochul’s proposal is meeting predictable resistance from civil liberties and public defenders groups in Albany who are allied with lefty lawmakers in the legislature.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), described the issue last week as one of the main topics of conversation holding up budget talks — along with the Governor’s proposals to ban phones during the school day, make it easier to involuntarily commit people dealing with mental health issues, and a newly found push to place restrictions on mask-wearing.
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