NYC NOW - A New York Law Protects Domestic Violence Survivors. The Court Says Prosecutors Have Been Undermining It.

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

A New York law allows domestic violence survivors who commit crimes connected to their abuse to ask judges for reduced sentences. But the state’s highest court recently ruled that prosecutors cannot require survivors to waive that right as a condition of a plea deal. WNYC’s Samantha Max explains the cases at the center of the decision, why advocates say the practice is widespread, and what prosecutors fear the ruling could mean for victims and the court system. Plus, WNYC’s Jimmy Vielkind breaks down a growing push by top Democrats to redraw New York’s congressional maps as national redistricting battles escalate. Photo: Screenshot, New York State Court of Appeals - Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail]​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Junae Pierre. They have just committed harm to a loved one. It may have been a loved one that also was abusing. They were causing them off, but still, there's grief, there's guilt, there's loss in that moment. Sometimes survivors of domestic violence end up committing crimes in response to their abuse. On today's episode, we look into a. a state law meant to protect those survivors, but it's being undermined by New York prosecutors.

Plus, a growing number of Democrats are pushing for New York to get into the redistricting fight. That's all ahead. But first, here's your news headlines. Climate change activists used to think they had an ally in Governor Kathy Hokel. Now they're furious she's scaling back the state's climate change law. Stefan Aedel is executive director of the advocacy group New York Renews. If she is a climate leader in this moment, it is the wrong direction. It is saying to the nation, instead of focusing on the science and on what protects New Yorkers, let's focus on what I think the least common denominator that I can get away with is.

The governor says changes to the climate law will be included in a final state budget deal. It'll push back a state mandate to cut emissions by 10 years. The current law would have required a big cut by 2030. The governor says that would have caused energy costs to skyrocket. Opening statements began Monday in the trial of a Brooklyn teen accused of killing a black gay dancer after shouting racist and homophobic slurs. Prosecutors say Dmitri Popov stabbed O'Shea Sibley at a Midwood gas station in 2023. They say Sibley and his friends were listening to music and dancing while they filled their car with gas.

WNYC's Samantha Max was at the courthouse for day one. The defense attorneys say that Popov, who was 17 at the time, was actually acting in self-defense and that he was terrified for his life during this chaotic situation. Sibley's mom testified at the stand that her son had been dancing since he was a kid. She also said that in the early morning, after this incident happened, she remembered police coming to her door and telling her, that her son had been killed. Popov is being tried as an adult.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder as a hate crime in other charges. New York City will convert blocks near 50 schools into car-free streets for kids to play soccer ahead of this year's World Cup. Mayor Zoramam Dani says New Yorkers should be able to participate in the festivities for the tournament even if they can't afford tickets to the games. City Hall officials say the initiative has already started and will run through the end of the school year on June 26. New York State's highest court said prosecutors have been undermining a state law meant to protect

domestic violence survivors who commit crimes in response to their abuse. More on that after a quick break. Welcome back. A New York law allows domestic violence survivors who commit crimes related to their abuse to ask judges for a less severe punishment. But the state's highest court recently found that prosecutors have been undermining this law. WMYC, Samantha Max, joins us to talk more about it. Hey, Sam.

Hi. So what is the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act? This is a law that passed in 2019 after years of advocacy that allows domestic violence survivors who commit crimes related to their abuse to request a special hearing with a judge to seek a lower sentence. This is for cases where someone can, argue that they have been subjected to substantial physical, sexual, or psychological domestic abuse, that this abuse contributed to the crime that they committed. And if they meet those parameters,

then a judge can give them a hearing where they would argue for a less harsh punishment. They have to present evidence, witnesses can testify. And if the judge is convinced that domestic violence really did play a role in the crime that they committed, then the law allows them to give a lower sentence than what would typically be the sentence for that kind of crime. For some types of crimes, the person might not even get prison time at all. And lawmakers say that the goal of this legislation was to give judges the opportunity to really think about, you know, the defendant's full experience, not just this isolated incident that happened, but their history of abuse and how that factored into what they did on that particular day.

And it's also in that same vein to protect survivors from facing what some would feel to be an unnecessarily harsh punishment. And the Court of Appeals recently weighed in on the case of one woman, a domestic violence survivor who wanted to use these hearings, but she didn't get to. What happened? Yeah, so this was the case of Nicole Hudson. She has said that her ex-boyfriend abused her for years, both physically and verbally. And according to court records, back in 2019, she was at this block party in Brooklyn when her ex unexpectedly showed up. She says he jumped on top of her and punched her, followed her to her car. Then he was, like, banging on the windows of the car, she says.

And court records say that Hudson was trying to speed away from her. from him, but as she did, she actually ran over someone else, dragged that person's body down the street, they were paralyzed, and Hudson was charged with attempted murder and assault, which meant she faced up to 25 years in prison if she was convicted. Brooklyn prosecutor said she could plead guilty to this less serious charge of reckless assault, face only five years in prison. But there was a catch. If she said yes to this deal, then she could not have a domestic violence Survivor's Justice Act hearing. I talked to her attorney, Paris DeYoung, who said that Hudson felt like she didn't really have a choice in that situation.

At the time, she had a young daughter who she was desperate to get home to. For her, it was like, am I going to spend decades away? Am I going to risk spending decades away from my child? Or am I going to take this plea agreement the guarantees that I'm out in a couple of years and can still know my daughter when she's still a child? So she took the deal, served her prison time, but she filed an appeal arguing that prosecutors by offering this deal to her had violated her request to a special hearing. And does she ultimately regret taking the deal or no? That is the argument that she's making, that the time she willingly took this deal,

but she felt like she didn't really have a choice. Yeah. And the state's highest court agreed with that. this, right? Right. So the Court of Appeals, that's the highest court that deals with cases where, you know, there's been an appeal and it's worked its way up through the system. They found that forcing survivors to waive their right to one of these hearings as a condition of a plea deal would essentially eviscerate the law. That's the language that they used. The judges said that this is an important right that survivors should not have to give up, that this law was written specifically with the intent of making the system fairer for survivors.

So they ordered a lower court to reconsider Hudson's case. You've spoken with some attorneys and advocates who say the outcome of Hudson's case is part of a broader pattern. Can you talk about that pattern and tell us what they said? Yeah, so I talked to Kate Mogalescu with the Survivors Justice Project. that is a group that works with domestic violence survivors interacting with criminal justice system across the state. And she told me that her organization gets letters from survivors in jails and prisons around New York who say they were pressured to give up a domestic violence survivors justice act hearing in exchange for a plea deal. She says domestic violence survivors often struggle with these plea negotiations.

It's such a chaotic situation, and they're having to take so many different factors into account as they're deciding whether or not to take a plea. They have just committed harm to a loved one. It may have been a loved one that also was abusing them and causing them harm, but still, there's grief, there's guilt, there's loss in that moment. So Mogalescu, she also says that, you know, in these moments when this crime has just happened and these survivors, are going through the plea negotiations, many of them have never even discussed the domestic violence that they experienced before that moment. And the other thing, she says, is that prosecutors have a lot of power when they're offering these pleas, people are potentially facing really serious charges with long prison sentences. And as a domestic violence survivor is deciding whether or not

to take one of these pleas, Mugulescu told me that this bargaining process can essentially mimic the powerlessness they felt in their abusive relationship. Yeah, and that has to be retramatizing in all of this. Yeah. So state prosecutors have expressed some concerns about this ruling. What are they worried about? Yeah, well, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Hudson's case, said in a statement that it does respect the court's decision, but that the office is worried it make it harder to resolve cases like Hudson's and get some sort of resolution for crime victims, which, like, in Hudson's case, you know, just because domestic violence is a factor in a crime doesn't mean that the person who was harmed in that moment was necessarily the person

accused of abuse. Sometimes it's a bystander who just happened to be there at that moment. I also spoke with Mary Pat Donnelly. She's the president of the District Attorney's Association, of New York, which represents prosecutors around the state. And she says that prosecutors are concerned that the ruling will prolong what's already just a really painful process for victims of crimes committed by domestic violence survivors. As I noted, you know, sometimes this is someone who is accused of abuse and sometimes it's not. Basically, it boils down to us having to go back to a victim and letting them know that the sentence that was imposed that they have come to terms with is at risk of being

reduced. And it can be very traumatizing to victims. Donnelly says prosecutors already take a lot of factors into consideration when they're offering a plea, including the age of the defendant, their criminal history, mental health background, things like that. But also whether they experience victimization, whether the victimization, whether the victim, acted as an aggressor in some way, whether the defendant maybe was justified in some way in their actions. So she says that prosecutors typically know the details of a case better than judges, and that's why they're the ones who are offering plea conditions. But she says district attorneys will follow the court's directives that have now come down because of this ruling.

That's WNYC Samantha Max. Thanks a lot, Sam. Thank you. Top Democrats in Congress are urging New York lawmakers to enter the National Redistricting Wars. Representative Joe Morelli met with Governor Kathy Hochle to push for amendments to the state constitution that would allow Democrats to draw new lines in coming years. WMYC's Jimmy Philkind spoke with the representative, and he joins me now. Hey, Jimmy. Hi, Jene. So what prompted Morelli's visit?

You know, this isn't really happening in a vacuum. In recent months, we've seen a tit for tat between red states and blue states that started last summer. That's when President Trump earns Republicans in Texas to redraw their congressional map to favor Republicans. So Democrats in states like California and Virginia responded. And what is normally a once-a-decade process of redistricting is sort of been rerun and is, in fact, still being rerun to create more red and blue districts in red and blue states. The final tolly is still out, but this is when likened to sort of an arms race, and neither party so far has a particularly big edge. And then the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in. Yeah, that's right.

Earlier this month, justices in the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that part of Louisiana's congressional map was invalid because it contains districts that under the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 were designed to yield a black representative. The court ruled that's an unconstitutional gerrymander, and the opinion is, touch. switching off yet more map-making, including last week in Tennessee. All right. So what can New York do? Well, Morelli says he wants the state lawmakers to change the state constitution so that there can be a new map. Right now, New York's Constitution bars mid-decade redistricting. But Morelli says the stakes are really, really high. They're starting to make moves in these southern states. We are going to respond. We're going to continue to fight back. We believe, as I said,

this is an existential threat to this democracy. I don't feel like I should be handcuffed. in a fight for our democracy. I will not be handicapped in that fight. I think all's fair and will have a more. I've said it before, and I believe that. So it seems like there's going to be lots of more talks to get to a concrete proposal that will then be considered. A lot more talking.

So what do Republicans say? They're very, very concerned. You know, Democrats control all the levers of power in New York's state government. And some members of the GOP are basically aware that it was their party. under President Trump, who started this. State Senator Tom O'Meara is a Republican whose district borders, Pennsylvania.

He says that any changes that get made will just mean that voters don't have real choices. I think it's bad policy what's going on right now, either from a Republican state or a Democrat state that's going on, and it's just leading to political warfare through redistricting. And, you know, the Republicans have some backup here. Good government groups like the Citizens Union say that the current system was inaction, acted by New York voters in 2014. It was a Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, who pushed for lots of these anti-gerrymandering protections that are now in place.

You know, Jimmy, lawmakers already have a lot on their plates. They're still busy finalizing the state budget. And now redistricting, what happens next? It's very, very much a multi-step process. And I think it's important for folks to remember that here in New York, there won't be any changes that get made in time for this year's elections. That's different than other states. So first, lawmakers need to settle on exactly what they want to do, right?

Do they just want to authorize re-decade redistricting? Do they want to change the rules for how redistricting operates? And as we just said, that's really far from certain and far from clear. Then they need to actually do it. To change the state constitution, you actually have to have two separate legislatures, two separately elected crops of legislators, vote on the same bill. So that means it would have to happen in 2026. And then after the elections, again in 2027.

And if it's approved by both, then it goes on the ballot for voters to weigh in. So if everything here went at warp speed, the soonest that redistricting changes could be on the ballot in New York is 2027. And the soonest anything could be in place is 2028. Well, that's a long way off, Jimmy. I'm sure you don't have anything on your calendar yet for 2028. Nope, nothing at all. Well, we'll keep checking back in on this. That's WNYC's Jimmy.

Feel Kind. Thanks a lot, Jimmy. Thanks, Jeney. And thank you for listening to NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.