this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
256 points (99.2% liked)

News

23645 readers
4255 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
JonsJava
rjc
Thekingoflorda
Tenthrow
gedaliyah
little_cow
jeffw
enu
256
New York governor vetoes bill that would make it easier for people to challenge their convictions (apnews.com)
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave to c/news
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Boddhisatva 62 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

Hello? The judicial system is broken. It needs to be upended.

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.

Also, how could a claim that requires new evidence that a person was wrongly convicted ever, in any way, be considered frivolous?! What the hell is this idiot thinking?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

The system is working exactly as designed. This almost accidentally made it a little fairer to prisoners.

[–] Hnazant 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wouldn't doubt it if 99% took a plea because they were threatened with a super harsh sentence as an alternative. If everyone stopped pleading you would have the same backlog "upending" the court system. Think that's the case in Oregon, no deals so everyone wants to goto trial.

[–] Boddhisatva 15 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Trials are how it's supposed to work. I'd argue the plea bargain system de facto violates the right to a fair trial since the vast majority of prisoners never got one

[–] themeatbridge 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Prosecutors and advocates for crime victims warned the bill would have opened the floodgates to endless, frivolous legal appeals by the guilty.

Oh, god, no, the horror! Imagine, all the paperwork of people seeking justice. Perhaps some of them are not actually innocent?! What a ridiculous waste of time, allowing people who may not be actually innocent appeal convictions, just because it will allow wrongfully convicted people to go free.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only insurrectionist white people get endless appeals silly! People of color go fill the for-profit prisons, it's the circle of life!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think ny only has public prisons

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Looked a little deeper and NY only has public prisons, but there are private "detention centers" whatever that horror is.

[–] RainfallSonata 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

She is such a piece of shit. Everytime I hear about her she's screwing over the little guy. She's supposed to be a Dem.

[–] MotoAsh 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The open obvious secret is that the Dem's don't fight for the little guy, either. They just kick down less and sometimes throw a bone, and dumb people think that magically makes them good.

Being better than a shitstain is good, but there's a looooong way to go from there to actually good.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

She was more conservative than cuomo, who is about as conservative as you can get from an economic standpoint.

[–] ProxyZeus 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Ever since the r2r (right to repair) bill got gimped by her, I don't trust her to do anything good

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

She's been vetoing a lot of good stuff lately.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is R2R?

[–] ProxyZeus 5 points 1 year ago

Right to Repair

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

What a piece of shit. I hope the legislature can overturn the veto, but I can't imagine any/many Republicans voted in favor of this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Katie, what u doin'!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

thepoliceproblem

As a kbin user, I have not figured out how to link to Lemmy communities. [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In some places people will give a falsified statement for a cigarette and a Twix. Cops know this, too. Just to give a little context as to why this is actually a potentially good thing