![]() Thomas Hoffman, an attorney who is representing two clients he says are innocent, said the existing appeal process for wrongful convictions is like being on “pins and needles.”Īmanda Wallwin, a state policy advocate at the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization that works to exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted, said the bill is a long overdue measure. That requirement makes it extremely difficult for defendants to get their cases heard before a judge, even if they have substantial evidence that is not DNA-based. ![]() ![]() In 2018, a top court judge ruled that people who plead guilty in New York cannot challenge their convictions unless they have DNA evidence to support their innocence. In New York, 94% of felony cases result in plea bargains, according to the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “Everyone can agree that wrongful convictions should be prevented, but processes and protocols already exist for that.” “How many times are Democrats going to tip the scales of justice in favor of convicted criminals? Victims and law enforcement continue to be an afterthought in Albany,” said state Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay, a Republican who voted against the bill. Republican lawmakers said the change in the law is unnecessary. “It would be an entirely unnecessary ‘fix’ for something that is not broken." “The bill would overwhelm the criminal justice system, at a time when the next straw might be the one that breaks its back," the group said in a statement. The District Attorney's Association of the State of New York cautioned, though, that while the bill would help the wrongfully convicted, it could also give a pathway to unwarranted appeals by people who are actually guilty. The charges against Lopez weren’t thrown out until last year, after the Manhattan district attorney reviewing the case concluded his guilty plea was done involuntarily under immense pressure. But when the “ Central Park Five ” had their convictions thrown out in 2002, it didn't apply to Lopez, who had avoided rape charges by pleading guilty to a robbery elsewhere in the park the same night. The law is aimed at people like Steven Lopez, who at age 15 was one of several New York City youths accused of rampaging through Central Park in 1989 and raping a jogger.įive of the teens who went to prison in that case were later exonerated by DNA evidence, which linked the rape to a serial rapist and murderer. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, hasn't indicated whether she will sign the legislation. That’s exactly how our legal system should work,” state Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat, said when lawmakers were deliberating on the Senate floor. That is not a radical proposition, that’s not out of step with what most New Yorkers think. “If you are innocent, you should not be incarcerated.
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