Kalle Condliffe, an attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Law Reform Unit, recently joined The Capitol Pressroom to discuss Governor Kathy Hochl’s proposed changes to New York State’s discovery laws, which govern evidence sharing between defenders and prosecutors.

Condliffe explained that before the current discovery laws, that went into effect in 2019, public defenders would often not get critical information about their case until the eve of trial. Clients would have to consider taking a plea, or risk going to jail without access to the evidence against them. The 2019 reforms were so effective, in part, because they incentivized prosecutors to share evidence in a timely manner or face the consequence of potentially having their case dismissed.

The Governor’s proposed changes would effectively repeal the 2019 reforms, specifically it will remove the enforcement mechanism that keeps prosecutors accountable and bring back the ability for prosecutors and police to withhold and hide evidence.

Condliffe identified updates to the discovery process that could improve the disclosure process, including a bill introduced by State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Micah Lasher that would give prosecutors direct access to police evidence databases.

“The reason that cases in NYC get dismissed, when relating to discovery, is because the police, the NYPD have not been providing access to evidence,” she said. “That issue would be solved by the Myrie/Lasher bill.”

Listen to the full segment below.