** § 99-hh. Criminal justice discovery compensation fund. 1. There is hereby established in the joint custody of the state comptroller and the commissioner of taxation and finance a fund to be known as the criminal justice discovery compensation fund.

Terms Used In N.Y. State Finance Law 99-HH

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.

* 2. (a) Such fund shall consist of forty million dollars upon immediate transfer from funds secured by payments associated with state sanctioned deferred prosecution agreements currently held on deposit with the office of the Manhattan district attorney.

(b) The office of the Manhattan district attorney shall annually remit forty million dollars of future state sanctioned deferred prosecution agreement funds which have been secured by January first of the subsequent year. If forty million dollars in future funding has not been secured, the office of the Manhattan district attorney shall transfer forty million dollars from funds secured by payments associated with state sanctioned deferred prosecution agreements currently held on deposit with the office of the Manhattan district attorney by January first.

* NB Repealed March 31, 2024

3. (a) Monies of the criminal justice discovery compensation fund, following appropriation by the legislature and allocation by the director of the budget, shall be made available for local assistance services and expenses related to discovery reform implementation, including but not limited to, digital evidence transmission technology, administrative support, computers, hardware and operating software, data connectivity, development of training materials, staff training, overtime costs, litigation readiness, and pretrial services. Eligible entities shall include, but not be limited to counties, cities with populations less than one million, and law enforcement and prosecutorial entities within towns and villages.

(b) The director of the budget shall provide the amount of the monies allocated pursuant to this § of the courts and the division of criminal justice services for the purpose of completing the report required pursuant to subdivision six of section two hundred sixteen of the judiciary law.

** NB There are 4 § 99-hh's