A New York bill aiming to lift the categorical ban for convicted felons to serve on juries is more about facilitating re-entry to society than it is about tilting trials toward defense lawyers, its advocates say.

Advanced by the Legislature’s Democratic majority, the Jury of Our Peers Act, if signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, would follow New York lawmakers’ restoration of voting rights to persons convicted of felonies, on their release from incarceration, in 2021.