"The discovery reforms we passed in 2019 were meant to improve defendants' access to evidence and other materials that could be used against them," said Myrie, a candidate for New York City mayor, in a statement. With the proposed tweaks in the law, "I believe we can achieve that goal while ensuring prosecutors are able to try cases on the merits, rather than seeing charges dismissed on procedural grounds," he said.
"Our legislation aims to reduce the administrative burdens on law enforcement while continuing to protect defendants' due process rights." The revised discovery process was passed alongside the state's hotly controversial bail-law changes in 2019.
When a growing number of cases started being dismissed because of the time rules, the 2019 changes were amended in 2022 to try and make it harder to dismiss a case because a prosecutor didn't comply with discovery.
Myrie points out that case dismissals are still higher than before the statutes went into effect. Criminal case dismissals in New York City have gone up from 41% before discovery reform to 62% today.
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