Regular Session - January 20, 1999
92
NEW YORK STATE SENATE
THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
ALBANY, NEW YORK
January 20, 1999
11:05 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION
LT. GOVERNOR MARY O. DONOHUE, President
STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary
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P R O C E E D I N G S
THE PRESIDENT: The Senate will
come to order.
I ask that everyone present please
rise and repeat with me the Pledge of
Allegiance.
(Whereupon, the assemblage recited
the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
THE PRESIDENT: The invocation
today will be given by Reverend Ronald Winley
from the Church of the Evangel in Brooklyn.
REVEREND WINLEY: Let us pray.
Creative God, Lord of the universe, we come
acknowledging that You are our creator and
because of You we live and move and have our
being. We thank You, almighty God.
We come this morning on behalf of
our political leaders and the political
institutions of this great State with a
request that You grant each one a double
portion of knowledge, wisdom, compassion,
understanding and courage. We ask this of You
so that we may use the power entrusted to us
to create the space for the good life that we
all seek.
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Renew in all of us, O magnificent
God, that sense of awe and wonder and
reverence and respect for this creation in
which we are privileged to live and let that
awareness be reproduced in our actions on
behalf of all the people of this wonderful
State. Move us in our thinking towards a new
bottom line that incorporates our sense of
morality and essence that these qualities and
virtues have equal weight with our concerns
for economics and politics; that, like You, we
not be willing to allow any to perish, that
all can flourish in this good life that we are
permitted to create.
As we close out this millennium and
this 222nd Legislature, prepare us to enter
the next one. We are indeed posed to do great
works, but it will take solidarity and trust,
reconciliation and judgement, wisdom and
courage, and goodwill for each other to make
it a reality.
Grant us these blessings, O God.
Help us to respect the diversity in Your
creation and help us to advance the people of
this State, where we have a history of using
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our differences to dominate each other. Let
us use our differences now to enhance each
other.
Thank you, God, for allowing us to
be co-creators with You in this grand project
of life and continue to shape us through Your
precious Holy Spirit. Amen.
THE PRESIDENT: Reading of the
Journal.
THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
Tuesday, January 19th. The Senate met
pursuant to adjournment. The Journal of
Saturday, January 16th, was read and approved.
On motion, Senate adjourned.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Witho
ut objection, the Journal stands approved as
read.
Presentation of petitions.
Messages from Assembly.
Messages from the Governor.
Reports of standing committee.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Lack,
from the Committee on Judiciary, offers up the
following nomination:
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As a judge of the Chemung County
Court, James T. Hayden of Elmira.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: The
Chair recognizes Senator Lack to move the
nomination.
SENATOR LACK: Thank you, Mr.
President.
With pleasure, I rise to move the
nomination, the confirmation of James T.
Hayden, of Elmira, as a judge of the Chemung
County Court.
Mr. Hayden, who is in our gallery
with his wife, Jackie, has appeared before the
Committee, his credentials have been examined
by the staff of the Committee. Today he
appeared before a meeting of the Judiciary
Committee and was unanimously recommended by
the Committee to the floor of the Senate.
And it is with great pleasure that
I yield to a gravelly voice, but
nonetheless-here Senator Kuhl, for purposes of
a second.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Chair
recognizes Senator Kuhl.
SENATOR KUHL: Thank you, Mr.
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President.
I was prepared to talk at length,
but it appears as though, in all of your
benefit, that my voice has disappeared. So
leave it to say, it be said very quickly.
Jim Hayden brings a great deal of
experience to the bench and I rise to second
his nomination.
Thank you.
Sorry, Jim.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: The
question is on the confirmation of James T.
Hayden as judge of the Chemung County Court.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Oppos
ed, nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: James
T. Hayden is hereby confirmed as judge of the
Chemung County Court.
Congratulations, Judge Hayden, and
Godspeed in your tenure. And to your wife,
Jackie, too. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
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ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Secr
etary, will read.
THE SECRETARY: Also Senator Lack
from the Committee on Judiciary reports:
Senate Prints 497, by Senator
Seward, concurrent resolution of the Senate
and Assembly;
709, by Senator DeFrancisco, an act
to amend the Surrogates Court Procedure Act;
907, by Senator Skelos, an act to
amend the General Obligations Law.
Senator Saland, from the Committee
on Children and Families, reports:
Senate Print 1031, by Senator
Saland, an act to amend the Education Law.
Senator Goodman, from the Committee
on Investigations, Taxation and Government
Operations, reports:
Senate Print 456, by Senator
Volker, an act to amend the Tax Law.
All bills directly for third
reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Witho
ut objection, all bills directly to third
reading.
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Reports of select committees.
Communications or reports from
State offices.
Motions and resolutions.
SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, I
believe that there is a privileged resolution
at the desk by Senator Maltese. I would ask
that the title be read and moved for its
immediate adoption.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Se
cretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: By Senator
Maltese, Senate Reso -- Legislative Resolution
139, mourning the death of Robert E. Cornell
of Ridgewood, New York.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: All in
favor of adopting the resolution, signify by
saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Oppos
ed, nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: The
resolution is adopted.
Senator Bruno.
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SENATOR BRUNO: I ask that we, at
this time, adopt the Resolution Calendar, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: All in
favor of adopting the Resolution Calendar,
signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Opp
osed, nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: The
Resolution Calendar is adopted.
SENATOR BRUNO: Can we at this
time take up the non-controversial reading of
the calendar, Mr. President?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Secre
tary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
6, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 100, an act
to amend the penal law in relation to criminal
possession.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Lay
that bill aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
9, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 130, an act
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to amend the criminal procedure law.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Lay
that bill aside, please.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
11, by Senator Holland, Senate Print 256, an
act to amend the penal law.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: That
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
15, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 636, an
act to amend the panel law.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: That
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
16, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 650, an
act to amend the criminal procedure law.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: That
bill is laid aside.
That completes the reading of the
non-controversial calendar.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Can we at this
time have the controversial reading of the
calendar?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Secre
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tary shall read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
6, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 100, an act
to amend the penal law.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President -
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI:
Senator Volker.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President,
first of all, this is a bill that passed last
year by a vote of 57 to 3, and it involves an
anomaly in the law that there has been a few
number of articles about over the years, the
difference between the sale of crack cocaine
and marijuana.
The anomaly in the law is that a
person can be -- can have in his possession,
or in her possession, a considerable amount of
marijuana with intent to sell, but because of
the anomaly in the law, the penalty remains
the low penalty of possession.
What this bill basically does is,
is that it says that, if a person is in, has
in its possession two ounces of marijuana and
you can prove that there was an intent to
sell, it moves the penalty up to a class E
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felony. Technically, the possession could be
just a misdemeanor. If you could prove
possession with intent to sell, you move it up
to a class E felony, which is the lowest
felony with a potential sentence of 1 to 4.
Some of the New York City D.A.s
have said that when, until you get to a
felony, when you have an intent to sell, you
have little control, frankly, over the cases.
And, normally, they're just washed out. What
this does is, is give the district attorney at
least a handle on two ounces, for instance,
plus of marijuana when it's an intent to sell.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: S
enator Montgomery, why do you rise?
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President, I would like to know if the sponsor
would yield.
SENATOR VOLKER: Sure.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Senator
Volker, the idea here, I presume, is to raise
the criminality in relationship to the
possession of marijuana.
Now, given the fact that we already
have a problem with overcrowding in our
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system -- and it seems to me that this goes in
the opposite direction of where everybody else
in the country or at least in a number of
states are moving, and that is to move away
from criminalizing the possession of marijuana
and treating it as a hard, hard drug.
So do you, do you see that this is
going to cause us, in the long run, more
problems and is this not going in the opposite
direction of where we would like to go, and
that is changing the Rockefeller Laws to make
more sense of our criminal justice system?
SENATOR VOLKER: First of all,
this has nothing to do with the Rockefeller
drug laws. This was never part of the
Rockefeller drug laws. And, in fact, you
could make an argument that, in effect, this
works in reverse of what you just said. This
is not possession. This is actual -- these
are sellers. You could have people with large
packages of marijuana in, you know, two-ounce
bags or whatever, that clearly the intent is,
is to sell, but because of the anomaly in the
law, you can't charge them with a felony.
What this is designed to do is,
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frankly, equate -- and the criticism, by the
way, has been, if you have the same situation
with crack cocaine, you can charge them with a
B felony, not an E felony, a B felony, which
is a much more severe felony charge.
What happens with most of these
cases, in reality, by the way, is that they're
pled out, if this person is not a major
seller.
We do not have an overcrowding of
minor offenders in our prison system. The
ironic twist of it is that we have been driven
to check our prison system over a little more
closely. We are having a devil of a time
finding all these non-violent felon people.
There are in California and they are in a
number of states, but we are having a
difficult time. Remember, we have a Shock
Incarceration System. We have a lot of things
that we're doing to try to get people out of
our system. We're having difficulty, though,
filling our Shock incarceration classes
because we don't have enough non-violent
people to fill them. We're having great
difficulties. There's this perception out
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there that somehow there's this huge number of
people.
But this bill is really designed to
develop a process, a more rational process.
This was kind of a -- the possession of
marijuana, no one is trying to raise the
penalty for the possession of marijuana. This
is where you have somebody who is, in effect,
a seller of marijuana. You've got to prove
it, by the way. Just the fact that you
possess it, doesn't mean that you can charge
them with a, with a higher penalty. You have
to prove it. You have to prove that there was
an intent to sell. And the mere fact that you
possessed two ounces or above does not
generate the intent to sell. You still have
to prove it. And that's what the charge is
about.
So this does not have anything to
do with Rockefeller drug laws. Rockefeller
drug laws pertain to people in the higher
categories. This, this situation here has
nothing to do with Rockefeller drug laws.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: S
enator Montgomery.
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SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President, I want to thank Senator Volker for
his explanation. However, I don't, do not
accept it as valid in relationship to the
issue that I'm raising, and that is that we
are now going down this path to look at the
possession and/or the intent to sell marijuana
as a reason to incarcerate people, eventually,
for long periods of time in our criminal, in
our penal system. And we all know and we all
now understand that this, this kind of statute
has, essentially, wrecked our criminal justice
system. We have tremendous overcrowding, we
have tremendous inequity in sentencing and the
number of years people spend for, because of
these kind of statutes.
So I want to warn my colleagues on
both side of the aisle that, certainly, we
don't want to, to encourage people to use and
sell drugs, but we also, certainly, don't want
to put ourselves in a position where we have
these kinds of statutes, these kinds of laws
which, in fact, hurt us as it relates to
fighting drugs and crime related to drugs as
opposed to helping.
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So I'm voting no on this, on this
bill, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Thank
you, Senator Montgomery.
Senator Duane, why do you rise?
SENATOR DUANE: Mr. President, I
would ask if the sponsor would yield to a
couple of other questions.
SENATOR VOLKER: Sure.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI:
Senator Volker, do you yield?
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you.
Is there anything in the
legislation which would enable a person to
have a better opportunity to get into a
treatment program as an alternative?
SENATOR VOLKER: Senator, I'm
sure you're aware that legislation doesn't, in
itself, provide treatment. But there's an
interesting part of this. There is a theory,
and I think a pretty good one, that, for some
people, the only place they can get treatment
is in jail, because these people won't really
seek treatment outside.
We have some pretty good programs
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in our prisons now. Not as many as we would
like. And we would like to improve that and
we're going to try to improve that. And,
hopefully, when the conference committee
process this year, we may well do that. But
the truth is, for some people, the only place
they'll get any real treatment is if they're
incarcerated for a period of time.
By the way, I was just talking with
my colleagues here, the sentence here is 1 to
4. If it's a pure 1-to-4 sentence, they would
probably be out in about 6 or 7 months, or
could be out, depending on the situation.
Could be worse. This is a very low charge.
In New York City, in particular, for instance,
if this were a first-time offender, it would
be an automatic, we call it a wash out,
virtually, to a misdemeanor and would probably
end up attempting to get somebody into some
sort of treatment. This -- you have to be a
multiple offender in the City before anybody
pays much attention to you, for the most part.
One of the reasons they want to
make this intent to sell a class E felony is
because there are some people that believe
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that you really can't force somebody to get
some help unless you make it a felony and, and
allow the system to deal with these kinds of
people. And there's one argument that this
actually may help to provide fewer people in
the long haul into the system, if you're able
to get people who are selling marijuana, but
are only arrested for possession, off the
streets and maybe getting some help for
themselves also.
SENATOR DUANE: If I may make a
comment before I ask my second question?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Sure,
Senator.
SENATOR DUANE: I bring -- I
don't entirely disagree with your point on the
encouraging of people to go into treatment.
But my experience showed that due to, frankly,
state budget cuts, that there was a severe
diminution of availability of slots and
alternative to incarceration programs in the
City of New York. And, in fact, the City
Council had to restore an enormous amount of
money to replace the money which had been
taken away by the State. And I feel that we
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need to pay equal attention to alternatives to
incarceration as we do to the potential to
incarcerate people.
And if I may just ask my final
question?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Sena
tor Volker, do you yield?
SENATOR DUANE: I'm also
concerned because of the impact that this
legislation would have on buyers clubs for
marijuana, which, as you know, there is
certainly a very compelling discussion taking
place about the effectiveness of marijuana in
treating certain diseases, like cancer and
AIDS.
There has been a -
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Sena
tor, Senator, may I just interrupt for a
second now?
Would you please do me a favor?
Would you address the Chair -
SENATOR DUANE: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: -- the
stenographer is having difficulty recording
your words of wisdom.
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SENATOR DUANE: There is an
increase in the number of buyers clubs in the
State of New York to provide people who are
suffering from, for instance, cancer or AIDS.
And I'm very concerned about the impact of
this legislation on the ability of those
organizations which, whose intent is in no way
a criminal intent to operate. And I think
because of the, that reason and the reason I
previously stated before about our need to
also focus on alternatives to incarceration, I
intend on voting no on this matter.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Read
the last section.
SENATOR VOLKER: Can I answer
that?
I'll answer the question. The
answer to the question is buyers clubs in New
York of that nature are illegal. And so the
only way that -- the impact, I think, would
probably be negligible because they're illegal
now, and if a person is arrested and is
actually selling marijuana and they are
subject to incarceration at the present time.
And, in fact, if these buyers clubs have large
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amounts of marijuana, this legislation will
have little impact on them because they're
already subject to even stiffer penalties.
But I suppose it could have some impact if you
have somebody in possession illegally who is
intending to sell it, even though they claim
that they're doing it for a legal, medical
purposes, that's true, they could be subject
to incarceration. But let me make it clear,
there are buyers clubs, and I know there are
some, they're illegal in this State, because
we do not have any legislation that allows
that type of activity to be legal.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Se
nator Dollinger, why do you rise?
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr.
President, just briefly to comment on the
bill.
I wanted to just follow up
something Senator Volker said. I voted for
this bill in the past. I'm going to vote for
it again today.
But, Senator, you do point out one
thing that is critically important for
everybody to understand. And that is that it
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is unfortunate, but some people, the only way
they get treatment, is through the
incarceration system. And the great danger,
however -- and this comes from a study that
was done by the Monroe County Bar Association
in 1994, was that, unfortunately, that has a
disproportionate impact of people of color,
because what actually happens is, the
treatment slots for people with addition, even
though the drug use is about common among
everyone in this country, everyone in this
community, and certainly in the community of
Rochester, what the study found was that, of
available treatment slots, about 90 percent of
those slots go to whites and 10 percent of
them go to people of color. And the danger is
that what's happening, Senator, is that our
incarceration system is becoming the only
source of treatment for a major portion of our
State.
And I support this bill. I think
that in some cases it may be the only way to
get treatment. But underlying this is a
serious question about access to treatment on
demand for people that need it. And I would
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hope that if we were going to attack the
problem of addiction, we do it by recognizing
that what we need is treatment on demand that
can be uniformly applied to everyone, that
everyone will have access for, to before they
get in the criminal justice system. That's a
much better way to deal with this problem in
the long run, rather than rely on
incarceration as the only hope for drug
treatment for a major portion of our
population.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2, this
act shall take effect on the 1st day of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes 53. Nays 2.
Senators Duane and Montgomery recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
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9, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 130, an act
to amend the criminal procedure law.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
this legislation would allow witnesses to
testify out-of-court identifications of
defendants by photographs.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Read
the last section. Oops.
Senator Sampson, why do you rise?
SENATOR SAMPSON: I'd like the
sponsor to yield for a couple of questions.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Se
nator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Absolutely.
SENATOR SAMPSON: Do you, Mr.
President, does this bill in any effect
circumvent the weight hearing that takes place
before pretrial?
SENATOR SKELOS: This is
presently allowed in the federal government
and also in 49 other states, weight hearings
would be available plus notice to the, to the
defendants' attorneys that they intend to use
this type of identification.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Read
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the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5, this
act should take effect on the 1st day of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes 55.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar number
11, by Senator Holland, Senate Print 256, an
act to amend the penal law.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Sen
ator Holland.
SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes, Mr.
President.
This bill amends the penal law to
require a person who is out of prison on
parole and who subsequently is convicted of
another felony while still on parole be
required to serve out the maximum sentence of
the original felony before beginning to serve
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the sentence for the second felony.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Sena
tor Montgomery, why do you rise?
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, I'd
just like to ask a clarification question.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Se
nator Holland.
SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes, sir.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Senator
Holland, what is the lowest level of felony
that could trigger the re-incarceration of a
person?
SENATOR HOLLAND: The bill does
not break it down by levels of felony. It
just says a felony.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: So it's
absolutely any level.
Mr. President, one other question.
Could you explain now,
specifically, what is the extent of
lengthening of time that this bill would,
would require?
SENATOR HOLLAND: Extent?
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yeah. How
much more time?
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Can you give me an example of -
SENATOR HOLLAND: I cannot. I'm
sorry. I cannot, Senator. It depends on how
much time is left on the sentence, what the
Parole Board decides.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: So, in other
words, the, the, the person would serve out
the balance of their time -
SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes, first
parole.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: -- from the
first offense -
SENATOR HOLLAND: Right.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: -- and then
begin at that point a new time for -
SENATOR HOLLAND: The second
felony.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: -- the
second felony?
SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes, that's
true.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: All right.
Thank you for that clarification.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Se
nator Duane, why do you rise?
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SENATOR DUANE: Mr. President, I
would ask if the sponsor would yield to
another question.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Se
nator Holland.
SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes, Mr.
President.
SENATOR DUANE: Am I right in
assuming that this bill takes away some of the
discretion which a judge could have in
sentencing?
SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes. If
someone has been paroled and has been out on
parole and commits another felony, the judge
would not have the right to eliminate the
remainder of the first sentence.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you.
That's of concern to me, Senator, but thank
you.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 6, this
act shall take effect on the 1st day of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Call
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the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes 53. Nays 2.
Senator Duane and Montgomery recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
15, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 636, an
act to amend the penal law.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: The
bill will be laid aside temporarily.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
16, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print, 650 an
act to amend the criminal procedure law.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Se
nator Maziarz, an explanation has been
requested.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you, Mr.
President.
Mr. President, this legislation
expands the statute of limitations for
prosecutions of class B violent felonies from
5 to 10 years.
Presently, there is a 5-year
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limitation within which charges must be filed
against a suspect accused of a class B violent
felony. Class B violent felonies include rape
in the first degree, sodomy in the first
degree, kidnapping in the first and second
degrees, attempted murder in the first and
second degrees and criminal use of a weapon in
the first degree.
The current law ties the hands of
law enforcement officials, who, after years of
trying to solve a crime, may not get a break
in the case until after the 5-year statute
runs out.
In Western New York, there is
currently a very horrific example of an
individual who has raped, the same individual
who has raped at least eight women. And
through recent news articles, Senator Volker
Senator Rath and myself were extremely
disturbed that this individual could not, if
he were caught today, could not be prosecuted
for six of those eight rapes because the
statute of limitations has run out. And yet
DNA testing proves, beyond any reasonable
doubt, that the same individual is responsible
123
for all eight of these particular crimes.
This bill was first introduced by
myself in 1995. It passed the Senate at that
time with 14 negative votes. Subsequent to
that, we made some changes, working with the
District Attorneys Association of New York
State, particularly two district attorneys,
Frank Clark, of Erie County, and Matt Murphy,
of Niagara County, and we amended this bill,
which, during the debate in 1996, Senator
Paterson commented that he thought that the
bill looked excellent now.
So, I mean, even, it even has
Senator Paterson's endorsement. What more
could you ask for?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: S
enator Montgomery, why do you rise?
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes. Mr.
President, I just want to thank the sponsor
for a very good explanation. I understand it
now and I'll be voting for the legislation.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Nice
job, Senator Maziarz.
Read the last -
SENATOR MAZIARZ: I think it was
124
Senator Paterson's endorsement that won them
over, though. I really do.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2, this
action will take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes 55.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Bill
is passed.
SENATOR VELELLA: Can we return
to Number 15 now, Senator Nozzolio's bill?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Secre
tary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
15, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 636, an
act to amend the penal law.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2, this
act shall take effect on the 1st day of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Call
125
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes 53. Nays 2.
Senators Duane and Montgomery recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Bill
is passed.
Senator Skelos, that completes the
reading of the controversial calendar.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
is there any other housekeeping at the desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Senat
or Stachowski, why do you rise?
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Mr.
President, even though you didn't show up for
tennis this morning, I move the following
bills be discharged from their respective
committees and be recommitted with
instructions to strike the enabling clause:
Senate 370, for Senator Krueger.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Enabl
ing clause?
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Enacting
clause.
Sorry. I cannot read anymore.
126
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: Okay.
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: That's
because I'm tired from getting up for tennis.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: I was
prepping on the right words this morning for
you.
So ordered.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Is there any
other housekeeping at the desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: No,
there is not.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
on behalf of Senator Bruno, in consultation
with the Minority Leader, I hand up the
following minority committee assignments and
leadership position and ask that they be filed
in the Journal.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: It
will be filed in the Journal.
SENATOR SKELOS: There being no
further business, I move we adjourn until
Monday, January 25th, at 3 p.m., intervening
days being legislative days.
ACTING PRESIDENT BALBONI: The
127
Senate stands adjourned until January 21st
at -- 23rd at 3 p.m, intervening, intervening
days being legislative days.
(Whereupon, at 11:40 a.m., the
Senate adjourned.)