ALBANY — An Albany judge delivered a major win to district attorneys Tuesday night, striking a controversial law that would have allowed the probing of state prosecutors by a state panel.
The law created a Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct empowered with investigating accusations of wrongdoing by prosecutors.
The panel would be able to call a hearing based on the misconduct allegations, and then decide to dismiss the complaint, punish the offending district attorney or assistant district attorney or recommend to the governor that the individual be removed from office.
Cuomo signed the original bill in 2018, which was put on hold once the District Attorneys Association of New York filed a lawsuit shortly after, arguing the law violated the separation of powers doctrine.
Amendments were made intending to address constitutional concerns.
But Cuomo eventually signed the measure into law in March 2019 — admitting the bill was likely “vulnerable” to legal attack and the legislature dropped the ball on negotiations in his bill memo.
On Tuesday, Acting Supreme Court Justice David Weinstein wrote the CPC was unconstitutional because it violated home rule jurisdiction already afforded by the state’s Appellate Division — New York’s middle level court.
“The law would create a “parallel body, which would have the same power to determine whether there have been violations of the Rules of Professional Responsibility, and to impose censure for such violations,” he wrote in his decision, highlighting the statute that these judges already use to determine violations and impose a sanction.
Weinstein also added an appellate judge can’t make any decisions outside his or her jurisdiction — four “divisions” or courts are set up across the state.
“A Justice of the Appellate Division cannot serve in the capacity of an appellate judge outside of the department that he or she was appointed to,” the judge wrote.
“There is nothing on the Constitution which would allow the Legislature to cobble together particular judges from each Appellate Division and vest this new body with jurisdiction nowhere provided for in the Constitution itself.”
The decision comes at a time when district attorneys are struggling to keep up with changes to the criminal justice system following the 2019 legislative session.
State lawmakers passed bills that ended cash bail for most crimes, reduced the length of time before cases are brought to trial and bar prosecutors from withholding evidence until the day a trial begins.
County prosecutors and law enforcement seek more funding and even amendments to comply with the changes, which leadership in the state Senate and Cuomo have indicated may be on the table ahead of state budget negotiations.
The Legal Aid Society decried Weinstein’s opinion.
“People have languished in prison for years, their lives ruined because of the misconduct of prosecutors who abuse their power with impunity,” said spokesman Redmond Haskins in a statement.
“There must be an independent body to hold prosecutors accountable when they break the law or act in bad faith. This decision will not stop the movement for real accountability.”
