BILL NUMBER: S4592

SPONSOR: GIANARIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to allowing
evidence of a defendant's prior crimes or acts to be admissible in a
criminal case for certain purposes

 
PURPOSE:

To allow courts to admit evidence that a defendant has committed prior
sexual offenses in a criminal proceeding in which a defendant is accused
of a sexual offense.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 adds a new section 60.77 to the criminal procedure law affirm-
ing that evidence of crimes, wrongs, or other acts is generally inadmis-
sible to probe the character of a person, and lists exceptions to this
general rule. It further allows the court to admit evidence that a
defendant has committed prior sexual offenses in a criminal proceeding
              

in which such defendant is accused of a sexual offense.  Further, this
section states that the court, in its discretion, may exclude evidence
if its probative value is outweighed by the probability that its admis-
sion will create undue prejudice to the defendant.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Unlike most states, New York does not have a statutory code of evidence.
The majority of New York's evidence rules come from case law, and a
limited number of rules are contained in the Criminal Procedure Law.

Sixteen states have adopted the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE).  Pursu-
ant to FRE 413, in a criminal case in which a defendant is accused of a
sexual assault, the court may admit evidence that the defendant commit-
ted any other past sexual assault. New York has not adopted FRE 413;
rather, New York courts apply the narrower Molineux Rule, named for a
Court of Appeals case, which allows prosecutors to bring in proof of a
defendant's prior bad acts or crimes to "establish motive, opportunity,
intent, common scheme or plan, knowledge, identity or absence of mistake
or accident" (See People v.  Molineux, 168 N.Y. 264, 1901).

Prosecutors attempting to bring in evidence under the Molineux Rule have
a very high threshold to cross. It is not often used successfully in New
York, since any evidence of prior bad acts or crimes is typically deemed
highly prejudicial. Evidence of prior bad acts or crimes will only be
admitted if the probative value of the evidence outweighs undue preju-
dice to the defendant. This bill would allow New York courts to admit
evidence that a defendant had committed a prior sexual offense in a
criminal proceeding in which a defendant is accused of a sexual offense,
and further codify the purposes for which evidence of a prior crime or
bad act is admissible.

The need for this legislation was highlighted by the Court of Appeals'
recent overturn of Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction of criminal sexual
act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, for offenses
against two women. The judge in his trial allowed for the admission of
evidence of his prior sexual assaults under the Molineux Rule.
Weinstein's defense team objected to the admission of the evidence at
trial, and following his conviction unsuccessfully filed an appeal to
the Appellate Division arguing that such evidence should never have been
admitted. However, in 2024, Weinstein's team was successful and the New
York Court of Appeals overturned the 2020 conviction, concluding that,
"the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged
prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the
underlying case."

This legislation is necessary to ensure that survivors will be able to
rely on this type of evidence in future cases. According to the Depart-
ment of Justice, recidivism rates for those who commit sexual assaults
are approximately 24% percent after 15 years. Furthermore, rapists and
sex offenders are far more likely overall, as compared to non-sex offen-
ders, to reoffered with a sexual crime, making evidence of prior sexual
offense highly probative. Sexual offenses are especially heinous crimes
and given the likelihood of recidivism, it is necessary to allow for
evidence of prior offenses to be admitted in sexual offense proceedings.
Successfully bringing in such evidence under Molineux is a difficult
hurdle for prosecutors, and allowing courts to admit relevant evidence
of prior sexual offenses will allow the finder of fact to examine all
relevant evidence in a sexual offense trial.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

A.4992B of 2023 and 2024, referred to codes.

Similar to S.9276 of 2023 and 2024, passed Senate.

A.10588 of 2022, referred to codes.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.