Relates to time limits for a speedy trial

Section 2: Section 30.30 of the Criminal Procedure Law is amended by:

*Allowing the court, whenever a prosecutor states the people are ready for trial, to make an inquiry as to the people's actual readiness. If, after conducting its inquiry, the court determines the people are not ready, the statement or notice of readiness shall not be valid.

*Requiring a statement of trial readiness be accompanied or preceded by a certification of good faith compliance with the disclosure requirements set forth in section 240.20 of the Criminal Procedure Law.

*Requiring that exclusions to the computation of time, when a statement of unreadiness has followed a statement of readiness made by the People, be accompanied by supporting facts and approved by the court. The court shall inquire on the record as to the reasons for the people's unreadiness.

*Requiring that at each court appearance date preceding the commencement of trial in a criminal action, the court, whenever it is practicable to so, shall rule on whether the adjournment period immediately following the court appearance date is to be included or excluded for the purposes of computing time within which the people must be ready for trial.

*Clarifying that for purposes of subdivision two of Section 30.30 of the Criminal Procedure Law, no time attributable to court congestion shall be excluded.

Justification

Kalief Browder spent three years jailed at Rikers Island, on a charge for which he was never tried or convicted. He was released in March 2013, having spent more than 700 days in solitary confinement. On June 6, 2015, Kalief committed suicide, a final and permanent indictment of New York's "speedy trial" statute.

In May 2010, 16-year-old Kalief Browder was arrested for stealing a backpack. While awaiting the basic American right of a speedy trial, Kalief had 31 court dates during his three years in jail, despite New York's so-called "speedy trial" statute, which says that the People must be ready for trial within six months for felony charges; 90 days for Class A Misdemeanors; 60 days for Class B Misdemeanors; and 30 days for violations.

Unfortunately, this case is not unique. According to a 2013 WNYC story, in 2013, about 1,500 people had been in NYC jails for more than a year awaiting trial. Another 2013 report found that 8,063 felony cases had been pending more than six months. And a 2013 New York Times article stated that in 2011 there were 141 pending cases in which the defendant was in jail three or more years citywide. Another 2013 New York Times article reported that in the Bronx, where Browder was arrested, the median length of a case from arrest to disposition was 517 days, and more than 70 percent of felony cases surpassed New York's "speedy trials" guidelines. According to a 2013 WNYC story, in 2010, nearly 100 defendants spent more than a year in jail but were never convicted of a crime.

Under current statute, prosecutors are allowed to declare readiness for trial by simply stating they are ready. At the very next court date, the People can declare themselves "not ready" and ask for an adjournment. Yet, even though it may take multiple weeks to get a court date, the prosecution is only clocked for the adjournment period it requested. As a 2014 New Yorker article pointed out, "Every time a prosecutor stood before a judge in Browder's case, requested a one-week adjournment, and got six weeks instead, this counted as only one week against the six-month deadline."

Kalief's Law will reduce undue delay by requiring the court to approve exclusions when a statement of unreadiness has followed a statement of readiness, and having the court rule on the number of days that should be included for speedy trial purposes. Kalief's Law will ensure that a statement of "readiness" is real by tying it to discovery requirements, requiring the People to possess evidence that they are in fact "ready" for trial while allowing for flexibility when the facts merit additional time. According to a 2014 New York Law Journal article, "A solution to the intertwined problems of extended pretrial incarceration and discovery delay is to reunite the concepts of trial readiness and discovery compliance."

Prior legislative history

New Bill

Effective date

60 days after it becomes law.