Nassau County Dan Donnelly heads to Albany on Tuesday to kick his reelection bid by calling for a change in the state's “criminal” detection law.
Donnelly, a Republican, told the post that it was featured in records of violent offenders standing up for law-abiding residents.
Democrat Nicole Arrowers He tries to free her in November, another career prosecutor who worked for 16 years in both Queens and the Nassau District Attorney's offices.
“As a prosecutor with over 32 years of experience and as a district attorney in one of the state's largest counties, I witnessed firsthand how the cashless bail laws and Discovery Reform Act violated public safety,” the 60-year-old said.
She will be urging Democrat-run Congress and Gov. Kathy Hochul to amend or repeal the controversial Bale reform and discovery laws at the Capitol, along with Senate leader Robert Ouest and members of the Senate GOP Congress.
“Since the implementation of these laws, we have seen a revolving door of justice where criminals walk technically freely while victims continue to suffer,” Donnelly said.
The Discovery Act, approved in 2019, raised the deadline for prosecutors to hand over evidence and witness names to the defendant's attorney.
Deadlines are unrealistic for prosecutors with large caseloads, Donnelly argues. And the minor mistake of being often irrelevant to the crime itself led to the dismissal of serious cases, allowing criminals to walk freely, she said.
She supports challenging prosecutors' findings by handing over the volume of information to defense and reducing the time frame defense attorney.
“In some cases, they were forced to hand over the victim's confidential information directly to the attacker, such as the rape victim's phone number,” she added.
Hochul himself has called for changes to the discovery law and has come to promote the state Attorney General's Association.
Donnelly was first elected to the DA in 2021 and was upset by the red waves against democratic state senator Todd Kaminski, who voted for the 2019 Bail and Discovery Act.
She supported the infamous Gilgo Beach serial killer case and secured convictions in famous cases, including the attempted murder of a Nassau County police officer.
“When I ran for the district attorney in 2021, I promised the people of Nassau County to always put their safety first, and I delivered,” Donnelly said.
But she said, “The battle is not over.”
