Provides that the court may, in its discretion, dispense with the defendant's personal appearance at an arraignment and conduct an electronic arraignment.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A1328
SPONSOR: Blankenbush TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to the use of
video monitoring equipment to conduct arraignments
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends article 182.20 of the Criminal Procedure Law expanding
the use of virtual arraignments to any county in the State.
Section 2 provides for the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Traditionally, defendants were required to be physically present during
arraignment proceedings, which sometimes resulted in great cost to the
county in which the proceedings are being held. The county holding
arraignment proceedings had to bear the cost of transporting defendants
from a secure location to the court for the defendants' personal appear-
ance. This presented a significant cost to the host county of the
proceedings.
With today's modern technology, it is possible to hold arraignment
proceedings through an audio-visual system whenever the defendant is
being held at a secure location outside the courthouse. Current law
recognizes this possibility and authorizes approximately half of the
counties in New York State to use audio-video technology to hold virtual
arraignments. The potential for this technology was proven during the
COVID-19 pandemic, when statewide video arraignments were provided for
under Executive Order 202.1 of 2020 in keeping with social distancing
requirements. This bill would allow for such electronic arraignments at
a statewide level.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Savings to counties.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1328
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 17, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BLANKENBUSH, BRABENEC, McDONOUGH, MILLER, TAGUE
-- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to the use of
video monitoring equipment to conduct arraignments
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 182.20 of the criminal procedure
2 law, as separately amended by chapters 242, 246, 252, 254, 321 and 351
3 of the laws of 2022, is amended to read as follows:
4 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law and except as provided
5 in section 182.30 of this article, the court, in its discretion, may
6 dispense with the personal appearance of the defendant, except an
7 appearance at a hearing or trial, and conduct an electronic appearance
8 in connection with a criminal action pending in [Albany, Bronx, Broome,
9 Erie, Kings, New York, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange,
10 Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Seneca,
11 Steuben, Tompkins, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Clinton, Essex, Montgomery,
12 Rensselaer, Sullivan, Warren, Westchester, Suffolk, Herkimer, Franklin,
13 Chemung, Schuyler, or Yates] any county, provided that the chief admin-
14 istrator of the courts has authorized the use of electronic appearance
15 and the defendant, after consultation with counsel, consents on the
16 record. Such consent shall be required at the commencement of each elec-
17 tronic appearance to such electronic appearance.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the amend-
19 ments to subdivision 1 of section 182.20 of the criminal procedure law
20 made by section one of this act shall not affect the repeal of such
21 section and shall be deemed repealed therewith.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05163-02-3
