by James C. McKinley Jr., New York Times
ALBANY - Gov. George E. Pataki and his Republican colleagues in the State Senate today unveiled a bill that is meant to give state and local police some of the same powers in fighting terrorists that federal authorities have.
The governor said the Republican-led Senate had agreed to pass the 37-page bill on Monday and urged the Democratic majority in the Assembly to approve it as well. “We are a target,” Mr. Pataki said. “America and New York are both targets, and we have to give law enforcement every tool we can, consistent with our freedoms.”
The bill immediately raised concerns from some liberal Democrats in the Assembly, as well as the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The legislation would make possessing or using chemical or biological weapons an offense punishable by life in prison. It would also establish new felony charges for laundering money for a terrorist organization, conspiring to commit an act of terrorism or aiding terrorists.
The bill would permit, in terrorism investigations, roving wiretaps, which let the police listen in on any phone line a person uses, and would no longer require that the authorities corroborate the testimony of an accomplice. It would also allow prosecutors to use evidence obtained through an illegal search if the police officer “acted in good faith.”
In addition, the bill would let state prosecutors charge terrorism suspects even if they faced federal charges and would remove the statute of limitations on terrorist acts. The authorities would also be able to look at tax returns in terrorism investigations. Finally, the state could seize a convicted terrorist’s property outside the state.
Dan Weiler, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said that the Democrats were also interested in protecting residents and would carefully consider the bill.
Some liberal Democrats, however, said that the parts of the bill dealing with the rights of defendants might face tough going in the Assembly. “There are some things in the bill we should probably do and some things we probably shouldn’t,” said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester County Democrat.
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said several of the governor’s proposals were deeply troubling. Allowing state prosecutions of people charged in federal court, she said, would probably run afoul of the prohibition against double jeopardy in the United States Constitution. Allowing evidence obtained illegally but in “good faith” by a police officer erodes the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, she said.
Mr. Pataki, however, said the bill did not erode civil liberties but gave local police the tools that federal agents have. He said the state and local police could not afford to leave the business of tracking down terrorists to federal agencies.