Hochul, DAs want reform with discovery laws

Governor willing to delay state budget until changes with discovery requirements

Photo by Mike Groll/Office of Governor – Governor Kathy Hochul on March 24 convenes a domestic violence prevention roundtable with survivors, advocates and law enforcement. She said “technicalities” are causing too many cases to be dismissed due to the discovery laws where the prosecution has strict timelines to turn over evidence.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said too many cases in the court system are being dismissed due to “technicalities” on how quickly the prosecution has to turn over evidence to the defense.

She is demanding changes in the discovery laws that set strict timelines for handing over evidence to the defense. She is joined by the district attorneys around the state in seeking changes to the discovery laws.

Hochul is so adamant she is willing to hold off on approving the state budget.

“I’m really proud to be fighting on their behalf, and people all over this state who are denied the justice because of some technicality in the discovery laws that are written out,” Hochul said on Thursday in Albany after meeting with domestic violence survivors. “And they put their heart and soul into trying to get justice and it’s thrown out because something minor, irrelevant, is missing — I’m going to keep fighting until we fix this. I’m going to keep fighting to put this in the budget.”

 The Orleans County Legislature on March 24 also passed a resolution seeking changes in the discovery laws.

The Legislature said early and thorough discovery of evidence is not only fair to defendants, “but also facilitates meaningful plea discussions and efficient resolution of cases.”

However, the state’s reformed discovery laws in 2019 have put an “unreasonable drain on resources and forces DA offices to make difficult decisions on which cases they can prosecute,” county legislators said.

The new laws force prosecutors to collect all material that “relates to” a case within short timeframes, and then to certify the entirety of evidence by filing a Certificate of Compliance.

“The breadth and scope of discoverable material under New York’s new discovery statute is unparalleled nationwide, and includes any material that merely ‘relates to’ an incident regardless of its utility, relevance, or admissibility,” according to the Legislature’s resolution.

New York is the only state that allows cases to be dismissed due to minor discovery violations. Since the new discovery laws were enacted, speedy trial dismissals in the state are up from 12,398 cases in 2019 to 42,212 cases in 2023, according to the Office of Court Administration.

The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York wants the discovery laws amended.

Orleans County District Attorney Susan Howard is among the district attorneys seeking discovery law changes. Before 2020, it was a much simpler process of handing over the paper police reports to defendants, she said.

Now, there is a digital management system where a the initial discovery obligations must be submitted within 20 calendar days after arraignment if the defendant is in custody, and 35 calendar days if the defendant is not in custody.

“That’s not a lot of time,” Howard said. “Small departments don’t have the staff to download and get in the files. The discovery laws have made it very difficult for us.”

Hochul is seeking to not have cases be automatically dismissed if the all the evidence isn’t turned over in the time frames. The governor also wants to narrow the required materials to be those “relevant” to a case and not “related” – which would lower the workload on law enforcement agencies and the District Attorney offices.