The New York State Court System opened the new year with a swath of proposed changes to the way criminal justice is administered in New York State. These changes, which come in the form of administrative directives from Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, may help to streamline the criminal justice system and avoid improper convictions.
 
Chief amongst the new rules is a directive that all judges presiding over criminal trials require that prosecutors turn over information favorable to the defense no later than thirty days before a felony trial and fifteen days before a misdemeanor trial. Such information includes promises or inducements made in return for giving testimony and a witness’ prior convictions and uncharged criminal conduct.
 
Under the Supreme Court case of Brady v. Maryland, prosecutors are constitutionally required to turn over to the defense any exculpatory material. However, the decision and its progeny have fallen short of dictating when such information must be revealed. Over the years, this has resulted in exculpatory material being lost entirely or revealed too late to be of help to a wrongly accused defendant. This new directive not only puts a renewed focus on a prosecutor’s burden to reveal such information to the defense but sets out a timeline for a prosecutor to examine their file and provide such information in hopes of minimizing false convictions and ensuring juries hear all the evidence, good, bad or otherwise.
 
Future entries on this blog will cover other new directives and rules for the administration of criminal justice in New York in 2018.
 
Read more from Gallet Dreyer & Berkey’s White Collar Criminal Defense blog or contact an attorney in our White Collar Crime practice.