Gov vetoes outgoing Queens pol’s final bill
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The governor vetoed a bill that would have been the last legislation made law by now-retired Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry. File photo via Aubry/NYS Assembly
By Ryan Schwach
Governor Kathy Hochul in December vetoed the Jury of Our Peers Act – which allows people with past felonies to serve on juries – shooting down what would have been the last bill made into law by now-retired Queens Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry.
When the bill was passed in Albany in June, it had an extra meaning for Aubry, the 76-year-old legislator who sponsored the bill and who retired at the end of 2024.
The bill would have been the last piece of legislation Aubry, who spent most of his career championing criminal justice issues in Albany, would have seen signed into law.
In her veto memo, Hochul, who also vetoed a handful of courts- and criminal justice-related bills this session, cited "operational challenges” the bill purportedly would have posed.
“This legislation includes technical and operational challenges that would make implementation difficult,” her veto memo read.
She continued by saying that she reached out to the legislature to find a compromise but was “unsuccessful.”
In a statement to the Eagle, the Unified Court System, while expressing support for the bill, also mentioned concerns with the language of the final version of the bill that made its way to Hochul’s desk.
“The UCS supports the laudable goals that motivated this legislation: broadening the pool of potential jurors and helping to reintegrate individuals convicted of felony charges,” Office of Court Administration spokesperson Al Baker said. “However, there were operational concerns in the final version of the bill language, which we had hoped would be addressed as part of a chapter amendment.”
OCA and Hochul’s office did not provide answers to the Eagle’s questions regarding the specific “operational” issues the bill would have created.
Baker said the UCS would support a future version of the bill, should it be brought up in the next session.
“If the measure is reintroduced, the UCS stands ready to work through those issues with the sponsors in the coming session to ensure that the Jury of Our Peers Act can be effectively implemented,” Baker said.
Aubry did not respond to requests for comment.
When the Jury of Our Peers act passed the state legislature earlier in 2024 by a wide margin, Aubry told the Eagle that the bill was about correcting a longtime injustice.
“If they can vote for individuals to be elected and run for office themselves, the idea that they wouldn't be allowed to serve on a jury given the protections that already exist… just doesn’t make sense,” Aubry said at the time.
For Aubry, whose term officially ends with the new year, it was not specifically designed that the Jury of Our Peers act would be his last bill, but it is appropriate considering his years of criminal justice-centered work.
Out of college, Aurby worked as a teacher in prisons in New Mexico, and brought that work with him back home.
“That kind of laid a foundation for me to be interested in the criminal justice field,” he told the Eagle in June.
Once he was elected to office in 1992, succeeding the late Helen Marshall, who would go on to serve as Queens borough president, he was able to put that knowledge into legislation and pave a way for himself in Albany.
“When I ultimately got elected to the Assembly, my early committees did not involve criminal justice, but at a certain point in time, the Corrections Committee opened up, and I was appointed to be chair,” he said over the summer. “I think in part because I had that history.”
Aubry went on to introduce major reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Laws, and helped pass laws which set the tone for better treatment for people with mental illness in the prison systems.
Criminal justice advocates called Hochul’s rejection of the bill a mistake.
“Governor Hochul chose to reject what would have been an enormous stride towards racial equity, justice, and fairness within our state’s democratic system,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“Every day, New York’s jury ban shuts hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers out of civic engagement, denying people the ability to fully participate in our state’s democratic process, disproportionately Black New Yorkers,” Lieberman added. “By rejecting this pro-democracy bill and maintaining a lifetime ban on jury service for people with a past felony conviction who have already paid their debt to society, Hochul has stalled the process of creating a fairer legal system and kept us lagging behind most states.”
The Legal Aid Society shared a similar sentiment.
“We are greatly disappointed that the governor has vetoed the ‘Jury of our Peers Act’ which would have finally ended the lifetime ban on jury service for New Yorkers with felony convictions,” said Legal Aid’s Attorney-in-Charge of Criminal Law Reform Phil Desgranges.
“This long overdue legislation would have brought New York in line with the majority of states that recognize that restoration of civic duties like jury service is an essential part of successful reentry after prison,” Desgranges added. “More diverse jury pools — which are subject to individualized screening before selection as a juror — help to lessen the stark racial disparities that have eroded public confidence in the fairness and equity of our legal system. By vetoing this commonsense legislation, the governor has prevented New York from correcting an exclusion that unfairly stigmatizes the communities we serve, the majority of whom are people of color.”
