SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- State lawmakers will announce bi-partisan support Monday for a bill to create a new state watchdog commission on prosecutorial conduct, which would be the only one of its kind in the United States.

"I think it would be helpful to both prosecutors and the public to have more confidence in the system," Senator John DeFrancisco, who is sponsoring the bill, said Friday in an interview.

The State Commission of Prosecutorial Conduct would be charged with reviewing and investigating complaints of prosecutorial misconduct, with the power to discipline prosecutors determined to have acted improperly.

Members of the Commission would be selected by the governor, state lawmakers and the chief judge of the Court of Appeals.

It would be the nation's first statewide commission on prosecutorial conduct to help prevent wrongful convictions or indictments, and to exonerate prosecutors from false accusations of misconduct.

DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, said the push to create the commission wasn't prompted by any particular case of misconduct. Rather it is in response to many issues throughout the state with prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful convictions.

"This has been going on for years and years," he said.

The commission would be modeled after the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct, which adjudicates allegations of misconduct by judges. The commission has both found acts of misconduct and determined sanctions against judges, and has exonerated judges for false accusations.

"It works both ways," DeFrancisco said. "I believe there is no public official who has more discretion," than prosecutors do.

DeFrancisco will hold a news conference Monday in Albany announcing support for the bill. Assemblyman Nick Perry -- a downstate Democrat co-sponsoring the bill -- and Bill Bastuk, founder of It Could Happen to You, a fair-trial advocacy group.