New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill days before Christmas that would have made it easier for people who have pleaded guilty to crimes to challenge their convictions, a measure that was favored by criminal justice reformers but fiercely opposed by prosecutors.
The Democrat said the bill’s “sweeping expansion of eligibility for post-conviction relief” would “up-end the judicial system and create an unjustifiable risk of flooding the courts with frivolous claims,” in a veto letter released Saturday.
Under existing state law, criminal defendants who plead guilty are usually barred from trying to get their cases reopened based on a new claim of innocence, except in certain circumstances involving new DNA evidence.
The bill passed by the Legislature in June would have expanded the types of evidence that could be considered proof of innocence, including video footage or evidence of someone else confessing to a crime. Arguments that a person was coerced into a false guilty plea would have also been considered.
New York, and police in the US in general, have a long history of coercing confessions out of people. There are many reasons why people might confess to a crime they didn’t commit, and threats of overly harsh sentences are one of them. Roughly 1 in 6 convictions that are overturned in the US involve a false confession. Anytime there is evidence that someone was coerced to confess, there should be a thorough review. Her calling such filings frivolous offends me to the core.