Gov. Kathy Hochul made public safety the defining battle of her 2025 budget, holding the line for weeks in a standoff with the Legislature over changes to New York’s discovery laws. She appeared alongside crime victims, district attorneys and law enforcement leaders, making a forceful case that something had gone awry in the state’s criminal justice system — that justice delayed, or dismissed on a technicality, was justice denied.
After protracted negotiations, the final budget includes a compromise on discovery reform. While the deal fell short of everything Hochul sought, it nonetheless marks an important shift: a rebalancing of a legal system that had tilted too far toward procedural rigidity and away from common sense. The shift should help lock up repeat offenders, including those whose crimes most affect the business community, from shoplifters to criminals who make the subways feel unsafe.
For many of the city’s business owners — especially in retail and hospitality — the surge in case dismissals has felt like a justice system that looks the other way. Businesses hit repeatedly by theft or harassment often see cases vanish before they’re heard. These reforms represent a meaningful effort to restore accountability.
We support the changes and hope they will curb unnecessary dismissals, accelerate the resolution of criminal cases, provide stronger protections for witnesses, and restore faith in the idea that the law serves everyone — victims and defendants alike.
The need for reform was clear. New York’s 2019 discovery overhaul, passed under the banner of Kalief’s Law, was meant to prevent injustices like that suffered by Kalief Browder, a teenager who spent three years at Rikers Island without trial. It was a well-intentioned law — and long overdue in its demand for timely evidence-sharing. At the time, New York law included no meaningful time frame by which the prosecution had to provide the defense with the evidence it had. So, individuals often took blind pleas without understanding what evidence prosecutors had against them.
Almost immediately after the passage of Kalief’s Law, prosecutors said the power balance flipped. Now, it was defense lawyers waiting until the last minute to object that the evidence hadn’t been shared, in order to try to force a dismissal.
The results speak for themselves: Since the 2019 reforms, dismissals in domestic violence cases rose by 26% in New York City. In 2023, an astonishing 94% of domestic violence cases in the city were dismissed — and nearly half of those cases outside the city met the same fate. That is not a system delivering justice. That is a system breaking down.
Under the revised law passed in Albany, judges can consider whether prosecutors made a good-faith effort to meet disclosure requirements — rather than being forced to toss cases over irrelevant paperwork issues. Prosecutors are no longer required to chase down every document from every agency before proceeding with a case. And defense attorneys must now raise discovery issues earlier, rather than springing objections at the last minute.
Importantly, the reforms include new protections for witness information — a long-overdue measure to encourage cooperation and reduce intimidation. That change alone could make a meaningful difference in solving crimes and holding violent offenders accountable.
Yes, the reforms have their critics. The Legal Aid Society and others argue that changes threaten defendants’ rights. But these changes do not gut Kalief’s Law — they aim to make it work as intended. Hochul’s proposals were supported by Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg and Mayor Eric Adams — people with skin in the game of public safety.
The governor’s declaration — “we got it done” — may be premature. The proof will be in the implementation. But for now, New York has taken a necessary and long-overdue step toward restoring balance and basic functionality to its justice system. That is something worth defending.
