The Legal Aid Society is calling on lawmakers in Albany to reject a last minute proposal from Governor Hochul and NYC District Attorneys to overturn New York’s successful discovery reform law.

“For decades, New York’s unjust discovery statute was the most regressive in the country, depriving our clients of critical evidence, contributing to wrongful convictions and court delays resulting in lengthy pretrial incarceration,” reads a statement from Legal Aid. “In 2019, lawmakers rightly enacted reform, which mirrors many other states’ statutes, to bring this law into the 21st century.”

“Governor Hochul and local District Attorneys have proposed language that would essentially overturn this critical reform and return New York to a time when crucial evidence was withheld from the defense and our clients languished on Rikers Island for years,” the statement continues. “If passed, this proposal would upend the criminal legal system and further the disparate outcomes that our clients, Black and Latinx New Yorkers, would have to bear.”

Legal Aid is calling on lawmakers to properly fund both public defenders’ and prosecutors’ offices to fulfill the intended goal of the 2019 reforms, allowing all parties to implement the wholesale change in evidence-sharing practices.

“This 11th hour ploy to gut one of the most transformative reforms Albany has codified in recent memory is a shameless attempt by prosecutors to revert back to the days when discovery practices skewed heavily in their favor.” the statement reads. “Lawmakers in both chambers must stand firm against these continued chaotic attempts to undo their own progress towards making our criminal legal system more fair and just.”