BILL NUMBER:A10687
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation
to authority of the city courts to order recognizance or bail for all
felonies
This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of
the Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of her Local
Courts Advisory Committee.
This measure amends section 530.20 of the Criminal Procedure Law to
authorize the city courts outside New York City to set bail when a
defendant is charged with any felony.
Under CPL 530.20(2), when a defendant is charged by a felony complaint
with a felony, a local criminal court may order recognizance or bail
except that, where the local criminal court is a city, town or village
court, it may not order recognizance or bail when the defendant is
either charged with a class A felony or if he or she has two previous
felony convictions. By contrast, the remaining local criminal courts,
i.e., the New York City criminal court and the Nassau County and Suffolk
County district courts, have the authority to order recognizance or set
bail without these limitations.
There is no reason for excluding city courts from exercising this
authority. Like the New York City criminal court and the district
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
10687
I N A S S E M B L Y
April 14, 2010
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PRETLOW -- (at request of the Office of Court
Administration) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to authority of
the city courts to order recognizance or bail for all felonies
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 530.20 of the
criminal procedure law, as amended by chapter 531 of the laws of 1975,
is amended to read as follows:
(a) A [city court, a] town court or a village court may not order
recognizance or bail when (i) the defendant is charged with a class A
felony, or (ii) it appears that the defendant has two previous felony
convictions;
S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16653-01-0
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