Ediorial- NY lawmakers may fear voter wrath over bad bail reform — but refuse to fix it

 


NEW YORK- Good news: State lawmakers may be starting to worry that voters are linking their 2019 no-bail-required law to the spike in violent crime. Bad news: They’re making meaningless gestures that let them pretend they’re fixing the law without offending the pro-criminal left.

Case in point: Assemblywoman Sandy Galef (D-Westchester) and state Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick (D-Rockland/Westchester) are pushing legislation to give judges discretion to set bail in certain gun cases.

Great. But it won’t make much difference because judges already have discretion in many such cases. Meanwhile, their hands are tied in cases involving numerous other violations.

Nor can judges consider whether the defendant is a danger to the community. The current statute also forces them to impose the “least restrictive means” to ensure an accused person returns to court. And it contains discovery rules that enable defendants to get key info about witnesses, prompting many to clam up and destroy prosecutors’ cases.

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