New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Wednesday night that state leaders have reached a deal on discovery reform, which has held up budget talks for over two weeks, and made significant progress on other policy items in the spending plan. 

After a roughly one-hour leaders meeting with Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday evening, Heastie told Spectrum News 1 the meeting went well. 

"Discovery's done," the speaker said.

But to reach a final budget deal, Heastie said there's still work to be done. 

"Progress, but no deal," he added.

Hochul on Wednesday called a meeting with legislative leaders for the first time in six days to hammer out the compromise after a protracted stalemate on changing the state's discovery laws.

"I believe we're on the verge of a very important deal with the Legislature," she said earlier in the afternoon at an event in Manhattan.

Heastie worked with New York City's five district attorneys for days to reach the framework of a compromise to reform pretrial discovery laws overhauled in 2019. Discovery is the process that the prosecution shares evidence with the defense in a criminal case to be presented at trial. 

The current law has increased cases dismissed on technicalities, or when prosecutors fail to submit insignificant pieces of evidence.

The statute requires prosecutors to disclose evidence that is “related” and “relevant” to the case.

A source briefed on the agreement said Hochul's proposal would stand to change the term "related" to "relevant," except in cases of police misconduct.  An effort to separate some parts of the discovery process from the speedy trial clock have been removed from the deal. The defense would have 35 days after a certificate of compliance is filed to challenge it, putting a limit on when objections can be raised.

"We don't want to roll back the clock when the prosecutors have the way upper hand and can ambush the defense side, we're not looking for that," Hochul said. "We're just looking for justice for victims."

Back and forth about the compromise earlier Wednesday stirred confusion about if the governor was onboard with the Legislature's agreement.

Sources say Hochul didn't want to publicly acknowledge a deal until she had met with the leaders and could take credit for it.

District attorneys from around the state have pushed for the change after an increase of cases dismissed on technicalities — especially in New York City. 

Albany County District Attorney Lee Kindlon said at an unrelated event at the county courthouse that upstate courts do not have the same resources, or keep the same statistics as downstate courts.

"You can play games with statistics all day long," he said. "What I know, what the men and women in this office know is that we are dealing with a crushing amount of litigation when it comes to discovery motions and compliance motions."

Members of the Black Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus have fought Hochul's proposal for months, arguing it would allow prosecutors to use evidence to persuade innocent people to plead guilty.

Multiple lawmakers declined to be interviewed until the deal is done, but said they trust legislative leaders to negotiate.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who's running for New York City mayor, said the Legislature must keep the public safe while protecting due process.

The Brooklyn Democrat said the weeks of debate are critical to getting the language correct for courts and judges, and to minimize the impact when a case is dismissed.

"It is trying to find that balance and strike that balance," he told Spectrum News 1 on Wednesday. "I think that we have tried to do that as best as we can and there's going to be some fine tuning before the pens are actually down."