“This morning, we heard gut-wrenching stories from the families of good people who are no longer with us. My heart goes out to Jennifer Payne, Sheila Harris and their families. My questions for the governor, legislative leaders and the Majorities are simple. How many more innocent New Yorkers have to be hurt by this law before you’ll join us and repeal it? How many more people have to die? How many more families have to live in fear, knowing that the killer who took everything from them is free? When are you going to start listening to our law enforcement and district attorneys who have been handcuffed by these dangerous new laws? When are you going to start showing as much compassion for victims and their families as you are showing for the dangerous individuals who harm them?

“Not a single day passes by without yet another tragic story of a dangerous individual being released to the public, including serial, repeat offenders. Make no mistake about it, this is the most pressing issue facing our state today because we are talking about the public safety of every citizen in our state - upstate, downstate, everywhere! We can promote fairness in our criminal justice system without totally compromising public safety. We repeatedly warned our colleagues who supported this bill that it was dangerous. It’s so unfortunate that we were right,” said Palmesano.

“To Gov. Cuomo and members of the Majorities- it's time to fix this mess that you created. You own it! Any failure to take immediate action to solve this will continue to compromise the public safety of all New Yorkers and you must be willing and ready to accept responsibility for that,” said Palmesano.