![]() ![]() ![]() 7 A prosecution can also effect the accused’s ability to maintain custody of children, 8 to return home, 9 to see family, 10 or to even stay in the country if not a United States citizen. 5 Similarly, the accused’s employment can be terminated for the criminal accusations alone, 6 and a prosecution can affect one’s ability to find employment in the future. 3 For example, the accused can be incarcerated after the commencement of the prosecution, 4 and can lose income during the arrest, booking time, and court appearances. The problem with weak due process provisions at the commencement of a case is that any prosecution can have extreme consequences for the accused, no matter how minor the offense. Ultimately, since the current procedures are ineffective in protecting against unwarranted misdemeanor prosecutions, the solution lies in reintroducing preliminary hearings in all misdemeanor prosecutions to better provide due process for the accused in the State of New York. This article therefore analyzes the weaknesses in the existing criminal procedure laws for misdemeanor prosecutions, and discuss how historical protections dissolved into the myth of preliminary due process for misdemeanor cases today. This is problematic given that a criminal prosecution can have extreme consequences on an individual’s life at the very onset of their case. 2 In New York, however, the existing criminal procedure laws do not afford the misdemeanor accused any meaningful preliminary opportunity to fight the substantiation of the accusations against them. In 1906, the Court of Appeals of New York described one of society’s most fundamental principles of the justice system: that one should not be criminally prosecuted on an unsupported or unsubstantiated accusation. Ultimately, since the current procedures are ineffective in protecting against unwarranted misdemeanor prosecutions, the solution lies in reintroducing preliminary hearings in all misdemeanor prosecutions to better provide due process for all in the State of New York. This article therefore analyzes the weaknesses in the existing criminal procedure laws for these prosecutions, and assesses how historical protections dissolved into the myth of preliminary due process for misdemeanor cases today. This is problematic given that a criminal prosecution can have extreme consequences on an individual’s life, including the loss of liberty, employment, housing, child custody or freedom from immigration removal proceedings. The existing criminal procedure laws of New York do not afford the misdemeanor accused any meaningful preliminary opportunity to fight the substantiation of the accusations against them. “A prudent magistrate should proceed with the utmost caution when he has reason to suspect that a criminal proceeding was commenced before him, not to vindicate public justice, but to serve some private purpose, and should withhold process until satisfied that the complainant is acting in good faith in behalf of the people, and not to aid personal objects.” 1 Abstract
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