(ALBANY, NY) - The Alliance to Protect Kalief’s Law, a coalition of exonerees, impacted New Yorkers, public defenders, advocates, and concerned citizens, held an advocacy day in Albany calling on lawmakers to preserve New York’s common-sense and successful discovery statute, also known as “Kalief’s Law.”

At the behest of law enforcement, Governor Kathy Hochul included a sweeping proposal in her Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget that would overturn the current statute and restore a system allowing police and prosecutors to withhold evidence until the eve of trial. This would keep New Yorkers and their defense attorneys in the dark, preventing them from investigating, preparing a defense, or making informed decisions about their cases. This practice has contributed to the state's high rates of wrongful convictions, coerced pleas, and prolonged pretrial incarceration.

The Governor, law enforcement, and other critics of the reform have cited data from the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) as evidence that discovery reform has led to a surge in dismissals. However, this DCJS dataset tracks cases based on arrest charges, which are often downgraded at arraignments, after prosecutors review the evidence. This practice has long been common in the criminal legal system, predating the passage of the 2019 reform.

According to data from the New York State Office of Court Administration, which is based on arraignment charges, dismissal rates in counties outside of New York City with large population centers have either remained unchanged, slightly increased, or slightly decreased since 2019. This suggests that discovery reform, despite claims from critics, has had no discernible impact on dismissal rates.

“District attorneys have falsely characterized the Governor’s proposal to overhaul the state’s discovery laws as mere tweaks,” said Lisa Schreibersdorf, Executive Director of Brooklyn Defender Services. “Do not be misled. This proposal would return New York to the days of the ‘Blindfold Law,’ rife with wrongful convictions and injustice as people suffered in jail in the dark about evidence in their cases. Rather than make the operational adjustments to comply with the law, prosecutors have attempted to push rollbacks every year since the law’s enactment. We urge state lawmakers to protect Kalief’s Law and reject this dangerous proposal.”

Read the full press release here.