https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Legislature-creates-commission-to-probe-13008322.php
Legislature creates commission to probe prosecutors
District attorneys criticized move and say it's unnecessary
Published 4:39 pm, Tuesday, June 19, 2018
ALBANY — The state Legislature passed a bill this week that would create a commission to investigate misconduct by district attorneys, a move that brought staunch opposition from prosecutors who said it's unnecessary and that lawmakers should instead improve disciplinary procedures for all attorneys.
"We acknowledge the power and discretion attending our responsibilities as prosecutors, but professional misconduct by any attorney — prosecutors, defense attorneys, securities lawyers, government attorneys — should be subject to robust investigation and discipline by competent, well-functioning grievance committees," Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara, president of the state district attorneys association, said in a statement. "This problematic legislation does nothing to provide that."
State Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-DeWitt, said there has been little recourse for prosecutors who may engage in misconduct, including in cases in which individuals were wrongly imprisoned.
"In state courts we've had prosecutors that have been indicted. We've had cases that have been thrown out because of withholding evidence that puts somebody in jail for years and years and years," he said. "What happens to the DA that's doing the wrong thing? Nothing."
McNamara pointed to a state Justice Task Force that was established in 2009 by former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and already tasked with "eradicating the systemic and individual harms caused by wrongful convictions, and to recommend reforms to safeguards to prevent them."
The commission envisioned by the Legislature, he said, would create an oversight panel that would be redundant to the work of the task force.
Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares, who is poised to become the next president of the district attorneys association, said the bill sponsored by DeFrancisco and other lawmakers is akin to "appointing watchdogs over the only watchdogs they have."
During an earlier debate, he said, a lawmaker noted that someone could file a complaint against a prosecutor who was investigating a member of the Legislature. Eight of the commission's 11 members would be appointed by the governor and the Legislature.
The bill passed the Senate and Assembly as the federal corruption trials of former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, as well as a separate corruption trial involving multi-million dollar state university contracts, began this week in Manhattan.
"The irony of jury selection being commenced in a retrial of a former leader of the Senate and both the Senate and Assembly, not having addressed issues around ethics in their own house, deem themselves qualified to pursue the ethics of prosecutors," Soares said. "The bill does not include special prosecutors, the Justice Center that oversees people with special needs, or the attorney general; the only prosecutors they include are the prosecutors with jurisdiction over them."
The bill would become law if it is signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose office said they will review the legislation.
