Senate Bill S7288

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7288

SPONSOR: PALUMBO
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to allowing
judges more options for when to impose bail or commit the principal to
the custody of the sheriff

 
PURPOSE:

To amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to allowing judges more
options for when to impose bail or commit the principal to the custody
of the sheriff.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the bill places burglary in the second degree as defined in
subdivision two of section 140.25 of the penal law and robbery in the
second degree as defined by subdivision one of section 160.10 of the
penal law in the same category with other criminal offenses to be
              

considered as qualifying offenses for which a defendant may be committed
to the custody of the sheriff.

Section 2 would amend criminal procedure law (CPL) section 530.20 and
section 3 would amend CPL section 530.40 to classify any crime for which
a defendant has been accused of causing the death or serious physical
injury of a victim(s) as a qualifying offense for which a court may
consider establishing cash bail or committing a defendant to the custody
of the sheriff in county jail.

Section 4 is the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Burglary in the second degree and robbery in the second degree are both
classified as class c felonies punishable by a maximum of fifteen years
in a state prison. The maximum period of incarceration for which a
defendant may serve if convicted should serve as an indicator for how
the Legislature viewed the impact that these two serious felonies have
on society. Although some may claim that these two crimes are not neces-
sarily violent, both crimes as defined in criminal procedure law are so
potentially threatening and harmful to victim(s) that each crime argu-
ably borders on violent and should thus be treated as so. This bill
would treat each of these two offenses consistent with all other violent
felony offenses under penal law section 70.02 that are to be considered
as a qualifying offense for which a judge is afforded the option to fix
cash bail or to remand a defendant to the custody of a sheriff.

According to the NYS Department of Criminal Justice Services, there were
30,999 burglaries and 18,176 robberies reported to law enforcement in
2018 alone. These are not just merely statistics but each burglary or
robbery represents a person(s) whose life was impacted by inherently
violent crimes. New Yorkers should not have to live in fear of burglars
and robbers being out on the street because the judges' hands are tied.
Therefore it is imperative that judges have the ability to remand
defendants accused of burglary in the second degree or robbery in the
second degree into the custody of the sheriff while awaiting trial
should they believe it is appropriate.
In addition, judges must be provided the option to fix cash bail or
remand to the custody of the sheriff, those defendants accused of crimes
involving death or serious physical injury to a victim(s).  Under crimi-
nal procedure law, that went into effect January 1, 2020, judges are
denied the ability to remand defendants in to custody that had allegedly
committed crimes such as manslaughter in the second degree, criminal
negligent homicide and aggravated vehicular homicide; each of these
crimes are felonies and involve the death of at least one victim. As a
result, judges presiding such serious cases must have the ability to
uphold public safety and to ensure that allegedly violent defendants are
not out on the streets where they are free to reoffend. Enabling defend-
ants to walk the streets freely pending trial for such serious crimes
will not only lead to more New Yorkers fearing for their safety, but may
also encourage non-compliance with court appearances for defendants that
are not constrained by cash bail and that face the possibility of long
prison sentences.

A small number of states have chosen to or have considered doing away
with pretrial cash bail in recent years. The state of California elimi-
nated cash bail related to most criminal offenses in 2018. Yet Califor-
nia also promoted safeguards to accompany bail reform aimed at protect-
ing the public including an optional risk assessment algorithm utilized
in determining bail for some criminal defendants and allocated greater
funding for electronic monitoring (ankle bracelets) of some defendants
pending trial. Although these safeguards remain somewhat controversial,
they indicate the California Legislature took steps to protect its resi-
dents. Unfortunately, similar steps to promote public safety were not
taken by the New York State Legislature when bail reform passed in the
FY 2019-20 state budget.

Sadly, many New Yorkers believe the recent reforms to our system of cash
bail were reckless, rushed and are now dangerous to the safety and well-
being of our state's residents. The New York State Legislature has the
opportunity to rectify this apparent lack of foresight with the passage
of this bill that will allow judges to fix cash bail or to remand a
defendant into sheriff's custody in cases involving the death or serious
physical injury of a victim.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2020 A.9576.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill will take effect November 1 immediately following this bill
becoming law.