Bragg: New discovery law removes judges handcuffs so my prosecutors will try more cases

Come to Manhattan Criminal Court any day of the week and you’ll see prosecutors from my office arguing their cases, fighting for accountability for crimes that occur in this borough. You will also see them pushing giant metal carts, filled to the brim with stacks of thousands of papers and files.This is discovery — materials relevant to the case, like witness statements and DNA test results.It also includes a great deal of much less relevant material, like battery logs for police officers’ body-worn cameras and administrative records showing where in the courthouse a defendant was held.By law, prosecutors must disclose these materials to the defense at the very earliest stage of a case.

Ever since I became a prosecutor in 2003, I have been committed to robust and early discovery.But soon after I was elected Manhattan’s district attorney, it became abundantly clear to me that New York state’s 2019 discovery law — the recently revised statute dictating what materials are to be disclosed to the defense and when — had dire unintended consequences.Case outcomes were being determined not by the evidence in a case, but by a prosecutor’s ability to produce reams of records having nothing to do with guilt or innocence.The law was undermining accountability in the courtroom — and critically, undermining our city’s public safety, too. That contrasts directly with my mission, which is to keep everyone safe.I’m honored to oversee an office of 1,600 employees and more than 600 prosecutors.  From homicides to assaults and rapes, crime victims are counting on us to bring them justice and peace of mind.The people of Manhattan expect us to keep them safe and hold those who commit crimes accountable.But accountability under the 2019 discovery law proved hard to come by. After the law went into effect, case dismissals in all five boroughs of the city began to skyrocket for reasons having nothing to do with the merits of the cases.In 2023, 20,438 more cases w...