New York Times Urges Gov. Cuomo to Stay the Course and Mandate Criminal Justice Reforms

An editorial in Monday’s New York

Times

says New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is headed in the right direction to strengthen law enforcement’s ability to exonerate the innocent and convict the guilty. Last year, he passed a criminal justice package in the Legislature that omitted important fixes that would greatly reduce wrongful convictions. This year, he is building on recommendations by the Innocence Project and the New York Bar Association’s Task Force on Wrongful Convictions to pass reforms that would improve the way police conduct interrogations and identification procedures. The New York

Times

writes:>/p>

Mr. Cuomo would require the police to videotape interrogations of people charged with serious crimes, including homicides, kidnapping and violent sex offenses — a step that would bring New York in line with 18 states and the District of Columbia.

 

New York City’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, has begun to put such a policy in place. This is a positive step, but it does not relieve Albany of the responsibility to establish uniform and enforceable statewide standards.

 

Mr. Cuomo is also calling for improvements in eyewitness identification. The goal is to make lineups and photographs of suspects less susceptible to the subjective judgment of the enforcement personnel involved.

Read the

full editorial

.

 

Read about how

mandatory recording of interrogations can help prevent wrongful convictions based on false confessions

.

 

Read about reforms to

prevent eyewitness misidentification

.