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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:A10687
Title of bill
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to authority of the city courts to order recognizance or bail for all felonies
This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of the Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of her Local Courts Advisory Committee.
This measure amends section 530.20 of the Criminal Procedure Law to authorize the city courts outside New York City to set bail when a defendant is charged with any felony.
Under CPL 530.20(2), when a defendant is charged by a felony complaint with a felony, a local criminal court may order recognizance or bail except that, where the local criminal court is a city, town or village court, it may not order recognizance or bail when the defendant is either charged with a class A felony or if he or she has two previous felony convictions. By contrast, the remaining local criminal courts, i.e., the New York City criminal court and the Nassau County and Suffolk County district courts, have the authority to order recognizance or set bail without these limitations.
There is no reason for excluding city courts from exercising this authority. Like the New York City criminal court and the district courts, upstate city courts have access to information, such as the state criminal history database, that would enable them to make informed and reasoned decisions about the propriety of releasing a defendant on his or her own recognizance or on bail after reviewing the defendant's criminal history or prior arrest record.
By authorizing city courts to order recognizance or bail when a defend- ant is charged with or convicted of any felony, this measure would ensure that arraignment in city court would be totally dispositive on the issue of bail on a pending felony charge and would eliminate the need for defendant's counsel to make an application for bail in the county court.
This measure, which would have no fiscal impact upon the State, would take effect immediately.
2010 Legislative History: None. New proposal.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.