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Cuomo Vetoes New Gravity Knife Legislation & Indigent Criminal Defense Reform
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 2, 2017
Modified Jan 2, 2017
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Jim Jurica/iStock
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 2, 2017
Modified Jan 2, 2017
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Civil rights advocates condemned Governor Andrew Cuomo's decision to veto two pieces of legislation over the weekend; one that would have decriminalized certain types of pocket knives, and another bill that would have provided more state funding to pay court-appointed lawyers for indigent defendants. The vetoes were issued on New Year's Eve, hours before the midnight deadline.
Civil liberties groups have been pushing for the so-called gravity knife reform for years—critics of the current law, which dates back to 1958, say it's outdated and persecutes innocent people, including chefs and other tradespeople, for possessing blades commonly sold at hardware stores. The existing law, critics say, too narrowly defines what constitutes a gravity knife, and essentially makes most folding pocketknives illegal. A 2014 Village Voice investigation found that as many as 60,000 people were arrested for possession of gravity knives from 2003 to 2013, over 80 percent of them black or Hispanic.
"When it comes to the use of common folding knives, our working men and women are being senselessly targeted, for nothing more than doing their jobs," State Senator Diane Savino, who sponsored the Senate bill, said in a statement when the legislation passed in June.
Cuomo, in his veto statement, said that while he agreed that the "construct" of the current law "is absurd and must be addressed... this bill unfortunately does not address it."
The Governor's statement argued that the new legislation "would create more confusion among law enforcement and knife owners based upon its ambiguous phraseology" and "would potentially legalize all folding knives." Cuomo said he proposed modifications to the bill that would have specifically let "crafts and tradespeople" possess these sorts of knives, and blamed lawmakers for not adopting his changes.
"With this veto, Governor Cuomo ignores the calls from defender organizations, civil rights associations, trade unions and many others to fully reform one of New York State’s most discriminatory laws," The Legal Aid Society said in a statement. "While we are disappointed with the outcome, The Legal Aid Society will continue to explore all options—including litigation—that will finally address New York’s ambiguous knife statute that has long marginalized communities of colors and working class families.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio "applauded" Cuomo's veto, the AP reports.
Cuomo also vetoed legislation that would have required the state to eventually take over indigent criminal legal defense costs which are currently paid by NYC and counties outside the city. The New York Law Journal reports that New York State "currently pays an estimated $80 million toward indigent legal defense and New York City and the 57 counties outside the city about $360 million."
In vetoing the legislation, Cuomo said he recognized the need for indigent defense reform, but argued that it would be too expensive for the state to foot the entire bill. Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement that "until the last possible moment, we attempted to reach an agreement with the legislature that would have achieved the stated goal of this legislation, been fiscally responsible, and had additional safeguards to ensure accountability and transparency. Unfortunately an agreement was unable to be reached and the legislature was committed to a flawed bill that placed an $800 million burden on taxpayers—$600 million of which was unnecessary—with no way to pay for it and no plan to make one. As the governor said, this issue will be revisited this upcoming year."
Civil rights advocates denounced Cuomo for his veto, maintaining that New York State’s "failing" public defense system is in urgent need of reform. The vetoed legislation would also have reduced public defense attorneys’ caseloads and required a defense attorney to be present a criminal defendant’s first court appearance. The bill's supporters point to a 1963 Supreme Court ruling requiring the state to provide "a competent lawyer to people facing criminal charges who are too poor to hire one." But the bulk of this expense was passed along to individual counties in New York.
“We are deeply disappointed that the governor has vetoed the most important criminal justice reform legislation in memory,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman in a lengthy statement. “He has rejected a groundbreaking and bipartisan fix to our deeply flawed public defense system and left in place the status quo, in which the state violates the rights of New Yorkers every day and delivers unequal justice.”
Tagged
andrew cuomo
governor cuomo
gravity knives
legal defense
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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