After decades of criticism from defense attorneys and others, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would push to change New York’s “blindfold law,” which allows prosecutors to withhold evidence against a criminal defendant until just before trial.

The practice gives prosecutors a strategic advantage, especially because the vast majority of cases never make it that far: More than 98% of New York felony arrests that end in conviction occur through a guilty plea, not a trial.

“We need discovery reform,” Cuomo, a Democrat, said in his annual State of the State address.

New York is one of 10 states where prosecutors can wait until a trial to turn over witness names and statements, grand jury testimony and other evidence known as discovery, which backs up criminal charges.

New York lawmakers have introduced bills to open up the process at least a dozen times in the last 25 years, but the measures have faced powerful opposition from the state’s district attorneys. Prosecutors argue that turning over details of witnesses puts them at risk for intimidation and worse.

Read the full article on criminal defendants by Beth Schwartzapfel at The Marshall Project