NEW YORK CITY—Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch at an event on April 1 backed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed changes to the 2019 discovery law, which are currently delaying the 2026 state budget as Hochul and state legislators clash over the law’s wording.
Discovery laws concern how long before the trial defendants and prosecutors are allowed to collect evidence, and whether that evidence has to be shared.
New York state had particularly strict discovery laws, meaning that little evidence had to be shared between prosecutors and defendants before the trial. The accused would sometimes have to wait long periods to get to their trial. A notable case was when Kalief Browder spent three years at Rikers Island prison awaiting trial for a minor offense that was eventually thrown out….