Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and State Officials Release New Reports Highlighting Urgent Need for Changes to Discovery Laws to Protect Crime Victims

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence (OPDV) released a new package of three reports highlighting the importance of passing Governor Hochul’s proposal to streamline New York’s discovery laws to protect the rights of crime victims. These reports reflect input from more than 1400 people across the state, including survivors, their family members, community members, victim service providers, law enforcement and court personnel, and county governments. The summary and full package of reports can be seen here.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will have photos of the event available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Good afternoon everyone. Three months ago, I stood up before our state, and I made a vow, and that was to fight for victims of domestic and gender-based violence. And a vow to fix loopholes that denies them justice, and very often puts their lives in danger. And a vow to stop cowardly abusers from walking free over minor technicalities that have nothing to do with the case before them. And I made a vow to make the changes necessary without undermining the original intent of the laws.

But as we look at the unintended consequences of the 2019 reforms, you can imagine the shock, the confusion, and the fear that so many victims now feel. They feel it when the judge pounds the gavel. When the cuffs come off, the front door opens, and their abuser walks into the streets and back into their lives — no punishment, no order of protection, emboldened, and sometimes just hell bent on revenge. These are the women and their families we're fighting for.

And this is the reason I'm standing firm and why I'll refuse any state budget deal that does not fix the fatal flaw in these discovery reforms. What inspires me is that I think about the survivors that I've met, especially over the last few months, and their harrowing stories of survival, but I'm in awe of their strengths. And I think about my own mother and how her childhood was torn apart — living in an environment of domestic violence and how she spent the rest of her life fighting for survivors, being their voice at a time when people were not talking about them back in the seventies, they had to live in the shadows. They had no, no one's fighting for them. I'm still inspired by my mom. I wanna be her voice on behalf of these people as well. Her spirit still guides me today, and that's why I cannot and I will not back down.

So let's take a moment and ask how we got here. How is this system failing so many survivors? Now in 2019, we did reform the laws. And on one hand I'll say the changes were long overdue. They ensure that piles of evidence are dropped on defense lawyers — the eve of a trial, making it unfair for the defendant, and that no one languishes in jail for long periods of time without having the case presented before them, before they even get a trial to determine their guilt or innocence. We didn't want that then, and we don't want that now.

Anyone charged with a crime deserves to have the evidence against them presented. We all can agree on that. However, there are some devastating unintended consequences that we must address. The law now doesn't require prosecutors to turn over just relevant evidence. It requires them to turn over anything even remotely related to the subject matter under a very tight timeframe. Otherwise, the entire case and the corresponding order of protection can get tossed, and it happens too often. This puts an enormous burden on prosecutors. The pendulum has absolutely shifted from one extreme to the other, and it's hard for them to comply with an overly broad standard where if they miss some random detail that has no impact on the defense, where they submitted a day late, and boom, you know what happens? Another abuser walks out the door.

Now today, as some members of the Legislature refuse to accept just common sense reforms, the State Office of Prevention of Domestic Violence has issued a startling new report with input from over 1,400 people, including survivors, their families, victim service providers, and law enforcement – it paints a system desperately in need of repair. It shows a stark, stark increase in case dismissals and outlines how perennial predators weaponize the court system. The result is inflicting even more pain on their victims.

Here in New York City alone, domestic violence case dismissals have spiked 26 percent between 2019 when the laws were passed and 2023 — 26 percent. In 2023, the last year we have data, 94 percent of domestic violence cases brought forward were dismissed. That's unconscionable, especially given how often these incidences can turn deadly. That same year, nearly 100 New Yorkers were killed in domestic violence incidents. Those were our friends, our neighbors, we can't ignore that. How many more lives have to senselessly be ripped away before we make a change?

One report details some of the most gut-wrenching details and the dismissals. In one case, a Bronx woman who fled an abusive relationship, was then beaten unconscious by a relative of her ex-partner. She was pregnant at the time, and when the police arrived for a wellness check, her broken jaw was wired shut. Later on, the entire case was thrown out because the police body cam video from that wellness check was submitted late.

Another case out of Brooklyn – the defendant punched a woman in the face, kicked her and spat on her in front of her kids — absolute craven, abhorrent behavior. It was dismissed. Why? Because a missing piece of auto-generated duplicative police paperwork was missing. Throughout the entire criminal case, where there are mountains and mountains of disclosed evidence over these small paperwork errors. It all just defies common sense. And it defies the spirit of the original reforms, which were intended to create a more fair and transparent justice system, not to serve as a means to deny survivors justice by letting abusers get off on technicalities.

Let me be clear, I didn't fight to secure over $35 million last year alone just to help domestic violence, and then in turn, watch these abusers walk free over frivolous paperwork errors. It's time to recalibrate the scales of justice. We can do this – I know we can. It's time to pass the common sense discovery changes that I proposed to protect families and stop domestic abusers once and for all. And it's time to recognize that it's never too late to do what's right.

These modest changes would uphold the original reforms while preventing entire cases from being tossed if a discovery error is not harmful to the defense. The court will have to look at whether the error will actually hurt the defense's case. We want fairness for the defendant here.

Prosecutors will no longer need to waste time checking out endless amounts of information that is absolutely irrelevant to the underlying case. I don't want prosecutors chasing pointless paperwork to help them build cases, seeking justice, putting perpetrators in jail. They have to get that work done. So here's what I wanna say in conclusion, I urge every legislator still debating their position on this to look at this report, see what we've come up with. It's important that people see this. The work that's been done, talking to 1,400 people across our state trying to build a story about what is happening to New Yorkers under the current laws because I know we can do better. I know we can.

And I want those legislators to think about these victims and their families and their advocates who are begging us, just begging us to just do something. Think about the shattered families uprooted and on the run, think about the frightened children, hiding under the covers as they block out screaming and crying.

These were cases I knew all too well when my mother and our family started a home for victims of domestic violence because of what my mother had endured and what she had to witness as a child. We brought families with little kids to this home we created, and the kids had such hard eyes – they didn't know love.

They didn't know an environment where two people cared about each other. But over time, because of my mom's wonderful work – she was the best mom, best grandma – they felt loved. They felt secure. They felt the comfort of an environment that was not abusive. We saw them transformed, but they never should have been robbed of their childhood like my mom was. They never should have lost that. If we don't stand up for them, then who will? It is on our shoulders. At the end of the day, this is not a binary choice as people are trying to make it. Don't let anyone fool you. It's not a choice.

We have a fair discovery process. We just need one that swings, like I said, back to the middle, and stop letting dangerous domestic abusers off the hook. We can protect the rights, the core essential rights of defendants while holding people accused of crimes accountable, and bringing justice to survivors. I know we can do it. Do you think we can do it? I know we can do it. I know we can do this.

Let's get it done once and for all. It's now my privilege to introduce our net speaker, a woman who's devoted her career to supporting survivors and helping them rebuild their lives. Ladies and gentlemen, Executive Director of the State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence Kelli Nicholas Owens.