New York Legal Aid announced the formation of a statewide coalition Monday to defend the discovery reform law named for the late Kalief Browder, a young man whose three-year detention at Rikers Island without a trial made national headlines before he took his life in 2015.

The Alliance to Protect Kalief's Law is launching in response to concerns voiced by government officials like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who recently told the New York think tank Center for an Urban Future that "the most significant problem with the statute is the remedy; if a document or documents are inadvertently not disclosed, a lot of the courts are dismissing our cases."

Kalle Condliffe, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society's criminal defense practice, remembers what it was like to defend clients before the reforms took effect at the start of 2020. According to Legal Aid, New York was an outlier at the time for not requiring the government to provide criminal defendants with discovery until the day of trial.

Although there were rules that prosecutors had to turn discovery over once the defense requested it, Condliffe said there was no enforcement mechanism.

"What would happen is that you would have a case go on for sometimes a year, two years, and the defense would have no, or next to no, evidence that was in the possession of the prosecutor," she told Law360 on Monday. "So while this case was dragging on, it wouldn't be provided. In some instances, a prosecutor would just hand a stack of papers to you the day of or the day before trial."

The new rules, among other things, made prosecutors perform initial discovery obligations no later than 15 calendar days after a criminal defendant's arraignment. It was eventually changed to 20 days if the defendant is incarcerated and 35 if not.

A case can be subject to dismissal if discovery has not been completed after 90 days for misdemeanors or six months for felonies. Legal Aid has pushed back against allegations that the reforms led to excessive dismissals.

"A review of the entire New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services dataset shows that serious cases are not being dismissed at a higher rate because of discovery reform," the organization stated Monday. "And any claims otherwise rely on misleading, cherry-picked data points."

However, the Manhattan District Attorney's office told Law360 that New York City saw a 40% increase in the misdemeanor arrest dismissal rate in 2023 compared to 2019. The dismissal rate for felony cases rose from 28% to 41%.

According to the office, New York is the only state where a case's speedy trial clock is linked to discovery. NYC DAs are proposing the untangling of complete discovery compliance with speedy trial rights.

They also want to see more clarity on what materials need to be turned over before they can certify their compliance with their discovery obligations and the assurance that defense attorneys make more timely motions for discovery compliance issues.

These proposals, they note, would not change the scope and type of disclosed information covered by the current law.

The 2020 reforms came in response to national outrage over the case of Kalief Browder, who spent three years at Riker's Island — more than two of which in solitary confinement — awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a backpack, unable to make bail as an overburdened court system constantly delayed the adjudication of his case.

"Essentially, before discovery reform, the prosecutor could state, 'ready for trial,' and stop the speedy trial clock — which is what accounts for the amount of time a prosecutor gets before a case is subject to dismissal — and they could do that from the very beginning, having provided zero evidence to the defense and without having really reviewed it themselves," Condliffe said. "So that's what happened in Kalief Browder's case, and that's what happens in many, many cases."

Browder famously refused to plead guilty in exchange for the opportunity to be released on time served, maintaining his innocence from jail until the district attorney's office decided to drop the charges. His time in custody took a severe toll on Browder, who died by suicide at the age of 22.

"New York's discovery laws — named after my brother Kalief, who was deprived of critical evidence while he languished in a cage at Rikers Island — have transformed justice for New Yorkers writ large," Akeem Browder said in a statement. "The reforms enacted in 2020 ensure that accused New Yorkers have access to all evidence, promoting transparency, preventing wrongful convictions, and combating mass incarceration. These laws are about leveling the playing field and upholding the fundamental right to due process. Rolling back these protections would inevitably lead to more New Yorkers suffering the same fate as my brother."

Members of the coalition include Akeem Browder, New York attorney and exoneree Jeffrey Deskovic, The Legal Aid Society, The Innocence Project, Families & Friends of the Wrongfully Convicted, Citizen Action of NY, The Queens, Brooklyn and Bronx Defenders, New Hour for Women and Children-LI, Center for Community Alternatives, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, New York State Defenders Association, Freedom Agenda, Erie County Assigned Counsel Program, Nassau County Legal Aid Society, Ontario County Public Defender, The Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, St. John's University School of Law Defense and Advocacy Clinic, It Could Happen To You and The Bail Project.

--Editing by Rich Mills.

Update: This story has been updated with additional information about Kalief's Law.