Times Union photo illustration by Jeff Boyer.

For decades, New York’s evidence-sharing rules, also known as “discovery,” allowed prosecutors to withhold evidence until the eve of trial, leading to a legal system rife with uninformed pleas, lengthy pretrial incarceration and wrongful convictions. For these reasons, it was clear that our state’s discovery laws were badly in need of reform.

That is why as a New York state assemblymember, I carried New York’s first discovery reform bill and subsequent versions for over 20 years.

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After a long and arduous path that required research, debate and discussions with many stakeholders, including those who were directly affected by New York’s antiquated “blindfold law,” New York finally enacted discovery reform in 2019. This made for a fairer and more transparent legal system.........

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