“Either way, earlier discovery will give everyone more time to get to the bottom of it.”For decades, Republicans who controlled New York’s Senate blocked more than a dozen efforts to change the state’s discovery statute. But in last fall’s election, the power shifted to Democrats, who quickly passed not only the discovery law, but measures to curtail the use of cash bail and speed up the pace of trials. Under the new rules, prosecutors will have 15 days to turn over evidence like police reports, photos, electronic recordings and grand jury testimony, including the names of witnesses. The law also requires the defense to disclose certain evidence 30 days after prosecutors open their files. Perhaps most importantly, the discovery law pegs disclosure deadlines to the arraignment at the beginning of a court case rather than the trial near the end.

Source: New York Times May 02, 2019 09:00 UTC