ALBANY, NY (WTEN) — New York State is closing a loophole to make sure cases aren’t thrown out on technicalities— such as when pieces of evidence are turned over late to defense attorneys.
Eugene Welch, a partner at Tully Rinckey, said it can take time for evidence to be gathered and submitted.
“The DA presents to the defense things like the 911 tapes. Well, the 911 tapes are in the custody of the 911 operators or maybe the police department and they will get to them when they can. How about the body worn camera tapes? Those all have to be redacted to protect the innocent witnesses, so that takes time to get it out,” explained Welch.
Rensselaer County District Attorney, Mary Pat Donnelly, said prosecutors will still be held to a standard to make sure they make a good faith effort to get all the evidence to the defendant.
“The idea is, the defendant can review it before they make a decision on whether or not to take a plea or to go to trial. So, we’re still going to have that standard in place,” said Donnelly. “And it’s still a lot of work for prosecutors, but when there is an inadvertent error, a good faith mistake something that isn’t turned over that really doesn’t change the look of the case. It’s not gonna cause a judge to feel that the remedy of dismissal is required.”
Governor Kathy Hochul said changes that were made to the law back in 2019 went too far in the favor of the defense. She believes these amendments or the law will help fix that.
