Syracuse, NY — As his courtroom waited, Onondaga County Court Judge Stephen Dougherty launched Friday morning into an extraordinary evisceration of New York’s new bail law.
“I refuse to call it bail reform,” Dougherty said, noting he’s never voiced his objection so publicly in nearly two decades as a judge. “The governor and the legislature, in my opinion, by this legislation usurped the discretion of the judiciary, a co-equal branch of the government.”
Dougherty added to a chorus of law enforcement-minded voices who have decried the new law, which requires judges to release people accused of the vast majority of felonies as they await trial. District attorneys and police held a news conference in December warning of the law’s “insanity” and danger to the community.
