Photos: YouTube Screenshots
This week, as New York state’s budget continues to be held up, Governor Kathy Hochul pursues a rollback of vital policies regarding reforms that help ensure proper access to evidence for people facing criminal charges in New York, policies that are supported by several state legislators and would help shield Black communities from disproportionate harm. Passed in 2019, these reforms, known as Kalief’s Law, help prevent wrongful convictions, coerced plea deals, and prolonged pretrial detention by requiring prosecutors to share the evidence in criminal cases in a timely manner.
The law is named after Kalief Browder, who, as a 16-year-old Black boy, was accused of stealing a backpack and detained on Riker’s Island without trial and without his attorney’s ability to access the evidence against him. By the time prosecutors dropped charges three years later, Browder had spent almost 800 days in solitary confinement. He tragically died by suicide not long after his release.
In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Director of Policy Demetria McCain issued the following statement:
“Everyone is entitled to fundamental due process rights and fairness in our criminal legal system. No one should be imprisoned for years without the opportunity to see the full evidence against them. The failure of law enforcement agencies to swiftly and reliably share relevant records cannot fall on the backs of the thousands of people awaiting trial on Riker’s Island and jails across New York. The attempt to gut vital protections under Kalief’s Law will revert New York’s pretrial practices back to the era of limited transparency and fairness for people facing criminal charges in New York. This is particularly critical for Black and Brown New Yorkers who are over five times more likely to be incarcerated pretrial than white New Yorkers.
“Kalief’s Law was passed precisely because the discovery system in New York state has disproportionately harmed Black people and entrenched a system that imposes undue burden and harm to countless communities. To undermine Kalief’s Law is to dishonor Kalief Browder’s memory and reimpose the very system that contributed to the loss of Kalief’s life. We urge Governor Hochul and state legislators to retain the critical discovery reforms that have advanced much needed justice and fairness in our criminal legal system, and that have reduced the very court delays that cost Kalief Browder his life.”
Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
