Bill Text: NY A10394 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Relates to the publication of judicial opinions rendered in criminal causes.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-21 - referred to judiciary [A10394 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A10394-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10394

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      May 21, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Wallace) --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary

        AN ACT to amend the judiciary law and the  criminal  procedure  law,  in
          relation to the publication of opinions rendered in criminal causes

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited a the
     2  "criminal court opinion transparency act".
     3    § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 212 of the judiciary law is  amended  by
     4  adding a new paragraph (z) to read as follows:
     5    (z)  (i) Collect, compile, and publish online the following statistics
     6  and related data:
     7    (A) For each criminal case resulting in an opinion subject to publica-
     8  tion or reporting under article fourteen of this chapter:
     9    (1) information about the age, gender, racial and ethnic background of
    10  the defendant;
    11    (2) the name of the judge issuing the opinion;
    12    (3) the general issue or issues addressed by the opinion;
    13    (4) where relevant, for each issue, whether it was granted, denied, or
    14  disposed otherwise; and
    15    (5) the date and court of issuance; and
    16    (B) For each year:
    17    (1) the names of all judges presiding in New York courts;
    18    (2) the court or courts where such judges presided, the types of cases
    19  over which such judges had presided;
    20    (3) the number of such judges' decisions that were published; and
    21    (4) the number  of  such  judges'  written  decisions  that  were  not
    22  published.
    23    (ii)  Data  regarding  defendant characteristics, such as age, gender,
    24  racial and ethnic background, shall be limited to the data maintained by
    25  the office of court administration and the division of criminal  justice
    26  services,  and  shall  be  provided  by  them.  The  first data shall be
    27  published twelve months after the effective date of this  paragraph  and
    28  shall  include  data  from  the first twelve months following such date.
    29  New data shall be published on a  quarterly  basis  in  machine-readable
    30  tabular  format in a manner that permits quantitative analysis. The data

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15499-01-4

        A. 10394                            2

     1  shall be available for bulk download in tabular format,  as  defined  in
     2  subdivision one of section four hundred thirty-three-b of this chapter.
     3    §  3.  Paragraph  (u) of subdivision 2 of section 212 of the judiciary
     4  law is amended by adding a new subparagraph (vii) to read as follows:
     5    (vii) The chief administrator shall take such actions and  adopt  such
     6  measures  as  may  be  necessary to create a program by which the act of
     7  docketing an opinion by the clerk of any court, whether of record or not
     8  of record, shall without further intervention transmit a  copy  of  that
     9  opinion  to  the  law  reporting  bureau in accordance with section four
    10  hundred thirty-two of this chapter. The expenses incurred in the  devel-
    11  opment  and implementation of such program, including training officials
    12  in the use of such program, shall be borne by the state and not  by  any
    13  municipality.
    14    §  4.  Section  432 of the judiciary law, as amended by chapter 138 of
    15  the laws of 1939, is amended to read as follows:
    16    § 432. Copies of opinions, decisions and papers  to  be  furnished  to
    17  state  reporter. 1. For the purposes of this section, the term "machine-
    18  readable format" shall mean data or text presented in  a  format  easily
    19  processed  by a computer without human intervention and which ensures no
    20  loss of semantic meaning.
    21    2. The chief administrator of the courts shall in every cause provide,
    22  in any program of electronic means that has been employed in the  filing
    23  and  service  of  papers  in  any  cause,  including  but not limited to
    24  programs authorized by section 10.40 of the criminal procedure  law  and
    25  rule  two  thousand one hundred and eleven of the civil practice law and
    26  rules, for all opinions of the court filed on the docket in  such  cause
    27  to  be automatically transmitted to the state reporter in machine-reada-
    28  ble format.
    29    3. With the exception of court of appeals and appellate division caus-
    30  es directed not to be reported, as  provided  in  section  four  hundred
    31  thirty-one of this article, and causes where the opinions rendered ther-
    32  ein  are automatically transmitted to the state reporter, as provided in
    33  subdivision two of this section, the  [judges  or  justices]  clerks  of
    34  every  court  of record, including surrogates, shall [promptly] cause to
    35  be delivered in machine-readable format, by  such  means  as  the  chief
    36  administrator  may  provide  pursuant to subparagraph (vii) of paragraph
    37  (u) of section two hundred twelve of this chapter, to the  state  repor-
    38  ter,  without charge, a copy of every written opinion rendered in causes
    39  determined therein within five days of the rendering of such opinion  by
    40  the court.
    41    4.  The  clerks  of  each  criminal  court, as that term is defined in
    42  section 10.10 of the criminal procedure law, shall promptly  deliver  in
    43  machine-readable format to the state reporter, without charge, a copy of
    44  the  portions of the transcript of a pre-trial hearing or trial proceed-
    45  ing in a criminal cause in which the court set forth its reasons  for  a
    46  ruling  on  any  question  of law, including mixed questions of fact and
    47  law, that are enumerated in, but not limited to, the  list  of  opinions
    48  designated  for publication pursuant to paragraph (a) of subdivision two
    49  of section four hundred thirty-three-b of this  article;  provided  that
    50  oral rulings concerning pretrial detention determination at arraignment,
    51  the  imposition of a sentence, and ruling on oral evidentiary objections
    52  made during a trial or in response to testimony in a hearing  shall  not
    53  be so delivered.
    54    5.  The  chief  administrator of the courts shall provide for means by
    55  which the clerks of town and village courts may transmit  to  the  state
    56  reporter a copy of every opinion rendered in a criminal cause therein at

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     1  the  same  time  as  such  opinions  are  rendered or docketed, that are
     2  enumerated in, but not limited to, the list of opinions  designated  for
     3  publication pursuant to paragraph (a) of subdivision two of section four
     4  hundred  thirty-three-b  of  this  article.  The expenses of this system
     5  shall be borne by the state. Upon provision of this system,  the  clerks
     6  of  town and village courts shall transmit in machine-readable format to
     7  the state reporter a copy of every opinion rendered in a criminal  cause
     8  therein  within  five  days  of  the rendering of such an opinion by the
     9  court.
    10    6. The provisions of this section shall apply to all  criminal  causes
    11  terminated  in  favor  of the defendant pursuant to subdivision three of
    12  section 160.50 of the criminal procedure law.
    13    7. The [judges or justices] clerks of the court of appeals and of  the
    14  appellate  divisions and the appellate terms of the supreme court shall,
    15  in addition, cause to  be  delivered  to  the  state  reporter,  without
    16  charge,  a  list  of  all  decisions  rendered by the respective courts,
    17  together with copies of such points of counsel and records and papers on
    18  appeal, if practicable, as the state reporter may require.
    19    § 5. The judiciary law is amended by adding a  new  section  433-b  to
    20  read as follows:
    21    §  433-b.  Publication  of unreported opinions. 1. For the purposes of
    22  this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
    23    (a) "Bulk download" shall mean the  efficient  retrieval  of  a  large
    24  volume  of  data from a source, typically a database, in a single opera-
    25  tion.
    26    (b) "Machine-readable format" shall mean data or text presented  in  a
    27  format  easily  processed  by  a computer without human intervention and
    28  which ensures no loss of semantic meaning.
    29    (c) "Online electronic database" shall mean a free and publicly acces-
    30  sible website hosted on the law reporting bureau's official website that
    31  offers both basic and advanced opinion search functionalities, including
    32  but not limited to searches of opinions  by  the  issuing  judge,  party
    33  name,  date  range,  court  of issuance, and keywords within the opinion
    34  text, identifies each reported cause by a unique citation,  and  permits
    35  bulk  download  of its contents for free in tabular and machine-readable
    36  format.
    37    (d) "Tabular format" shall mean a systematic organization of data into
    38  rows and columns for easy interpretation, including but not limited to a
    39  spreadsheet or CSV file.
    40    (e) "Unreported opinions" shall mean all opinions transmitted  to  the
    41  law reporting bureau pursuant to section four hundred thirty-two of this
    42  article,  including transcripts of oral rulings not reported pursuant to
    43  section four hundred thirty-one of this article.
    44    2. (a) (i) The state reporter shall publish, at a minimum,  all  opin-
    45  ions  in criminal causes that are not selected for reporting pursuant to
    46  section four hundred thirty-one of this article and that decide  on  any
    47  of the following legal issues raised in a pre-trial motion:
    48    (A) A motion to suppress evidence or to controvert a search warrant.
    49    (B)  A  motion  to  dismiss  individual charges, or the entirety of an
    50  accusatory instrument, as defined by sections 100.05, 200.10, and 200.15
    51  of the criminal procedure law.
    52    (C) An omnibus motion filed pursuant to section 255.20 of the criminal
    53  procedure law.
    54    (D) A motion to exclude expert testimony.
    55    (E) A motion to challenge the validity of a certificate of compliance,
    56  as defined by section 245.50 of the criminal procedure law.

        A. 10394                            4

     1    (F) A motion to sever made pursuant to sections 200.20 and  200.40  of
     2  the criminal procedure law.
     3    (ii)  The  state reporter may publish additional opinions beyond those
     4  required to be published pursuant to subparagraph (i) of this  paragraph
     5  for the purpose of enhancing legal transparency and public understanding
     6  of criminal jurisprudence.
     7    (b) The state reporter shall publish opinions pursuant to this section
     8  in an online electronic database no later than seven business days after
     9  receipt  of  such  opinions.  The  state reporter may include headnotes,
    10  tables, or indices in any opinion published pursuant  to  this  subdivi-
    11  sion.
    12    (c)  The  state  reporter may publish in an online electronic database
    13  any opinion in a civil cause.
    14    3. The provisions of this section shall apply to all  criminal  causes
    15  terminated  in  favor  of the defendant pursuant to subdivision three of
    16  section 160.50 of the criminal procedure law.
    17    § 6. The judiciary law is amended by adding a  new  section  433-c  to
    18  read as follows:
    19    §  433-c. Redaction of personal identifying information of parties and
    20  witnesses. The state reporter shall publish or report opinions  pursuant
    21  to this article only after ensuring that such opinions have been redact-
    22  ed  to  preserve  the  privacy  interests  of parties to the case to the
    23  extent required by law, in accordance with rules and regulations promul-
    24  gated by the chief administrator of the courts with the approval of  the
    25  administrative board. The rules and regulations promulgated by the chief
    26  administrator  shall  incorporate  all preexisting requirements in state
    27  and federal law that would require the non-publication or  redaction  of
    28  private  information  in judicial opinions, including but not limited to
    29  protection of the privacy interests  of  defendants  and  witnesses,  as
    30  defined  by  subdivision one of section 640.10 of the criminal procedure
    31  law. The guidelines shall establish the duty of the  state  reporter  to
    32  ensure that such defendants and witnesses are exclusively referred to by
    33  their  initials in all criminal causes reported or published pursuant to
    34  section four hundred thirty-one and paragraph (a) of subdivision two  of
    35  section  four hundred thirty-three-b of this article, including, but not
    36  limited to, in the title of the published document. The guidelines shall
    37  further require the redaction of all addresses and other personal  iden-
    38  tifying information of all such defendants and witnesses. The guidelines
    39  shall  further  provide that the state reporter may not redact the names
    40  of police officers and peace officers, as defined by  subdivision  thir-
    41  ty-four  of section 1.20 and section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law,
    42  when described in their professional capacity as witnesses, or  individ-
    43  uals  qualified  or  professed  as expert witnesses by any party, to the
    44  extent that such names appear in an opinion.
    45    § 7. Paragraph (d) of subdivision 2 of section 10.40 of  the  criminal
    46  procedure  law  is  amended by adding a new subparagraph (iv) to read as
    47  follows:
    48    (iv) Nothing in this section shall be construed as to limit or qualify
    49  the delivery of opinions to the law reporting bureau  and  reporting  or
    50  publication thereof pursuant to article fourteen of the judiciary law.
    51    § 8. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    52  it  shall  have  become a law; provided, however, that the amendments to
    53  paragraph (d) of subdivision 2 of section 10.40 of the  criminal  proce-
    54  dure  law made by section seven of this act shall not affect the expira-
    55  tion of such section and shall expire and be deemed repealed therewith.
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