The “Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act” was introduced this session by Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Dan Quart. If it passes, even people who were forced “by poverty or coercion” into wrongly pleading guilty to a crime they didn’t commit would have a chance to prove their innocence.

“We do know we have a long and systemic problem in this state of people pleading guilty to crimes that they did not commit,” Quart told Capital Tonight. “We know it does happen and it happens often. Part of it is a long-standing history in our state of a lack of discovery rules, which we changed several years ago. Those extortive factors often lead to guilty pleas, even though the person is innocent, or more accurately, innocent of the charges being brought against him or her.”

Historically, formerly incarcerated individuals have been only been exonerated due to DNA or other science-based evidence. The Quart/Myrie bill changes that calculation.

“This changes that by saying the mere fact that you took a plea agreement does not preclude you from a hearing in front of a judge, post-discovery. So you get the information that may not have been available when you took the plea,” Quart said. “And also (the bill provides), the important right-to-counsel, which New York state does not have in the post-conviction space.”

The bill would provide $10 million to help pay for post-conviction counsel.