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CPL 620.40 · Article 620. Securing Attendance of Witnesses By Material Witness Order

Material witness order; arraignment

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)

§ 620.40 Material witness order; arraignment.

1. When the prospective witness appears before the court, the court must inform him of the nature and purpose of the proceeding, and that he is entitled to a prompt hearing upon the issue of whether he should be adjudged a material witness. The prospective witness possesses all the rights, and is entitled to all the court instructions, with respect to right to counsel, opportunity to obtain counsel and assignment of counsel in case of financial inability to retain such, which, pursuant to subdivisions three through five of section 180.10, accrue to a defendant arraigned upon a felony complaint in a local criminal court.

2. If the proceeding is adjourned at the prospective witness' instance, for the purpose of obtaining counsel or otherwise, the court must order him to appear upon the adjourned date. The court may further fix bail to secure his appearance upon such date or until the proceeding is completed and, upon default thereof, may commit him to the custody of the sheriff for such period.

Source of truth

Edition
Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
Official file
https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/CPL620.40
Text hash
sha256 2bc93432fc739c6b248681c7646669193d7703401a99c5f81e350c3225ca60bd
Composed by
gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.