New York State Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-C-Rome, joined with members of the Senate Republican Conference and Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly to urge the governor and legislative majorities to include substantive discovery reforms in this year’s final budget.
Sen. Griffo and his colleagues highlighted the need to fix the broken criminal justice system and equip those who work in law enforcement with the tools needed to protect victims, families and communities.
The push comes on the heels of ongoing state budget negotiations taking place between the governor and majorities. In the Senate and Assembly One House Budgets that were passed last week, they omitted language that would have modified the state’s discovery laws as proposed in the governor’s Executive Budget.
It was recently reported that New York City’s criminal courts have seen a huge uptick of 455 percent (an estimated 50,000 cases) in forced dismissals due to the 2019 discovery changes on the books today.
“There is a need for the governor and legislative majorities to make changes to the discovery process,” Sen. Griffo said. “The modifications that were made previously have made it even more difficult for prosecutors to get dangerous criminals off the streets. Other so-called criminal justice ‘reforms’ supported and passed by the majorities, including changes to the state’s bail law, have weakened the criminal justice system and jeopardized the safety of New York’s communities. We need policies that do not put criminals over crime victims and law-abiding New Yorkers.”
Sen. Griffo fought against and did not support the flawed changes to the state’s bail and discovery laws. He continues to actively engage and work with law enforcement, district attorneys, defense attorneys, crime victims and other stakeholders to address issues with the state’s criminal justice system and protect New York’s communities.
