New bill aims to help DAs with discovery
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Brooklyn legislator and mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie introduced a bill this week to give district attorneys access to police departments’ and other agencies’ online databases to aid in discovery. File photo by Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
By Ryan Schwach
A new bill introduced in Albany this week aims to help prosecutors catch up with new discovery laws by giving them access to the online databases of police departments and other agencies.
The bill was pre-filed on Monday by Brooklyn legislator and mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie, and aims to make discovery requirements easier to meet for district attorneys in New York State.
In 2019, legislation was passed that aimed to make the discovery process more open and fair to defendants.
While supporters of the reforms say the result has been fairer trials for defendants, opponents of the reforms say it has slowed down the judicial process and that DAs across the state have had trouble meeting the law’s requirements.
The new legislation, co-sponsored by Manhattan Assemblymember Micah Lasher, aims to make that process more streamlined by giving prosecutors direct access to police databases and electronic records from other agencies.
“This access will help alleviate delays, reduce the administrative burden on both prosecutors and law enforcement, and ensure that cases are resolved based on their merits rather than procedural failures,” the bill’s text reads. “By allowing staff in district attorneys' offices to directly retrieve records, the act also aims to return police officers to their core responsibilities of maintaining public safety. The legislature finds that these reforms will promote the timely and fair resolution of criminal cases, advancing the interests of justice for both defendants and the public at large.”
The bill currently sits in the Codes Committee in Albany, and already has the support of the Legal Aid Society and other criminal justice organizations.
“Measures to ensure that prosecutors are not reliant on local police departments to furnish evidence are precisely what is needed for New York’s landmark and widely successful discovery reform to achieve its full potential,” said the Legal Aid Society’s Chief Attorney of the Criminal Defense Practice Tina Luongo. “This bill aligns with our efforts to streamline the exchange of documents and information between all parties in a case. Technology exists that can make evidence sharing as easy as the touch of a button, and all criminal legal system stakeholders must work to bring this to fruition.”
While he didn’t explicitly say he supported the bill, Mayor Eric Adams on Monday said that he agreed the changes need to be made to the law to help DA’s better meet their discovery obligations.
“The district attorneys have stated the discovery rules are making it too challenging, and many of these cases are being dropped,” Adams said. “We need to look at the discovery.”
Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg both expressed their support for the legislation on Monday.
"The discovery law changes in recent years have resulted in countless hours and significant resources by law enforcement in order to become discovery compliant on the tens of thousands of cases prosecuted in New York City each year,” said Bragg. “While we work to find common sense reforms to the discovery statute this year, we know that the seamless transfer of discoverable materials plays an important role in the interests of justice.”
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office did not respond to requests for comment by print time.
