The View’s Joy Behar and NY’s Kathy Hochul Slam Progressive Bail Reform Laws: ‘Sounds Insane to Me’
The View co-host Joy Behar turned the topic to bail reform laws on Wednesday during an interview with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D).
While the governor was discussing her recent order to deploy National Guard troops to address a recent spike in crime in New York City subways, Behar noted that MTA Chair Janno Lieber blamed bail reform laws for some of the violence noting a good portion of the crime committed is by repeat offenders.
Hochul finished up talking about the National Guard and Behar’s question about the seemingly “circular” system.
Hochul blamed her predecessor and the state legislature for watering down bail laws and said her own reforms to those laws are having an effect. She also said recidivism is down more than 40% since last year.
“Last year I inherited from my predecessor and legislature before, they took the bail laws and watered them down and made it impossible for judges to look at the whole picture of the crime and the person, what they’re doing so I worked hard last year, I held the budget up one month late,” the governor said.
“I wanted to be on time. You can brag about being on time. I was not going to be on time because I had more leverage after April 1st so last year I held up the budget and got the changes I needed. Judges now have discretion. They can look at the whole issue and whether a gun was involved. Was there an order of protection. We have to protect the victims of domestic violence,” Hochul added. Hochul’s push to strengthen bail laws in New York has been opposed by progressive groups who pushed the reforms in 2019.
Behar jumped back in to note the “insane” story of four Long Island murder suspects being detained and then released, reigniting the heated debate about bail laws in New York.
Steven Brown, 44, Amanda Wallace, 40, Jeffrey Mackey, 38, and Alexis Nieves, 33, were all arrested, but released without bail in connection with a case involving two deceased victims and body parts spread across Long Island.
NBC New York reported:
None face murder charges, though court documents stated that the four suspects removed “sharp instruments, multiple body parts and other related items from the house” in an effort to conceal a murder. An assistant district attorney alleged the quartet went to barbaric lengths to cover up the killing, with police removing meat cleavers and butcher knives from the home.
Until any more serious charges are filed, all four will stay free without bail — a fact that has led to public condemnation of New York’s bail reform laws. Republican state lawmakers proposed a bill that would make concealing a human corpse a bail eligible offense.
Currently, it is not an offense in which a judge can impose bail, which is why the four defendants had to be released after their arrests.
“But there was just a crime on Long Island where body parts were found all over Long Island,” Behar told Hochul about the case. “They had four suspects. They let them go and now they’re out there still so what is the deal here? It sounds insane to me.”
Hochul said there has not been enough evidence to charge the suspects with murder meaning their lower-level charges protect them from being held in custody.
“The crime that was brought was not what was bail eligible. Yes, murder is. Yes, conspiracy to commit murder is. Yes, assault is bail-eligible,” she said. “All of those are and I know that the DA is working really hard with the Suffolk County Police Department to build the case they need to build to bring the charges that are necessary. The charges he brought, he did not have enough evidence at the time to hold them.”
Watch above via ABC.
