Posted on 08/23/2016 9:03:52 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
In a federal filing last Thursday, Obama’s Justice Department said that defendants can't be held in jail simply because they cannot afford bail. The Department argued that the practice was a violation of the 14th Amendment.
Author and attorney Publius Huldah disagrees.
"How Bail works in our Criminal Justice System and why it’s Important"
By Publius Huldah
“Holding defendants in jail because they can't afford to make bail is unconstitutional, the Justice Department said in a court filing late Thursday…” “It's the latest step by the Obama administration in encouraging state courts to move away from imposing fixed cash bail amounts and jailing those who can't pay.”
Bail is an important aspect of our criminal justice system.
In serious crimes, the prosecutor typically wants the accused put into pre-trial confinement.
There is a hearing before a criminal court Judge. The prosecutor shows why the accused should be put into pre-trial confinement; and the defense attorney shows why the accused should not be put into pre-trial confinement.
Then the Judge decides. The Judge must weigh the rights of the accused with the risk of harm to the Public if the accused is not put into pretrial confinement.
It is perfectly fair. The accused gets notice and a hearing where he is allowed to make arguments and put on evidence.
Pre-trial confinement is appropriate for serious offenses where protection of the public is a consideration. It is also appropriate where there is likelihood that the accused will flee the jurisdiction...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
Bail needs to be set according to what is a meaningful amount for the person making bail.
Like when Hillary eventually gets arrested her bail shouldn’t be any less than $100 million because for that paltry amount of money she’s a flight risk.
For a homeless guy $250 might be too much.
Just let them go, with a promise to return. After all, we know criminals are always honest and are no risk to society.
I’ll be impressed when they finally acknowledge that putative damages are by definition and intent excessive.
So, replace bail with a speedy trial...48 hours maximum until the initial hearing, one week to get to trial. Or let the liberals who are whining about the treatment of the “poor” front them the bail money.
Okay, let ‘em out, but the have to stay with Democratic policy makers.
The VIII Amendment reads, in its entirety:
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
I think it is arguable that any amount of bail which is beyond the defendant's ability to pay is by definition "excessive."
Obviously, if a defendant is perceived by the court to be a danger to society based on preliminary evidence, there is a concern about letting him or her out of jail until a trial is held and concluded.
But the Constitutional solution in that case is for the judge to rule that the defendant be remanded to custody until there is a trial and a verdict.
Heck my county has “diversions” you can buy from the powers that be to completely ignore and scrub from the records any criminal act you have committed, for a price.
OK, how about a “bail collar”? Like a dog training collar that zaps him when he misbehaves, GPS equipped. If the perp fails to show up at the appointed time and place for a hearing, press the button and remind him. And if he’s not allowed to leave the area the GPS will zap him if he does and broadcast his location. Make sure he knows that it will explode if he tries to cut it off or otherwise remove it, too.
I always thought that is the way bail is calculated. I may be wrong but don’t prosecutors pull financial and asset records of people accused of crimes and base their request on the persons financial condition? People are held with no bail, all cash bail, bonds, etc.
We can see what we want and make an argument out of anything.
We have been told that Obama is an expert on constitutions.
Yes he has studied ours for a minute or two and has concluded he needs to replace it with what he knew as an adolescent.. and what he grew up with. One that he knows has all the answers.
Sharia.
So now, he’s going to have his people pivot towards a sharia complaint constitution and away from one based in a Judeo Christian heritage.
Thus Hillary Clinton pushing the UN resolution 1618 and giving our internet to the OIC’s “UN”
so we can be censored again.
They have to make us more sharia compliant.
“.....Heck my county has “diversions” you can buy from the powers that be to completely ignore and scrub from the records any criminal act you have committed, for a price.”......
That’s covered in Chapter 6 in Clinton’s book “Pay to Play”
The bail is usually low enough for someone to spring these thugs.
Note the words cruel AND unusual. Hanging alive in an iron framework on the gibbet and dying over days or a week was cruel, but not unusual.
Wow, they really do want all the felons and yet-to-be-convicted felons out and voting, don’t they?
Can’t afford bail? then put them on public work detail
so they want to do what they do with illegals. Catch them and then let them go hoping the illegals or criminals can then turn up to a court date. Yep that has worked so good for the legal immigration system. NOT.
“So, replace bail with a speedy trial...48 hours maximum until the initial hearing, one week to get to trial.”
Let’s say a crime is committed. A suspect was seen running from the area and arrested. The police do an initial investigation finding no evidence of who but lots of clues. This isn’t their only case. They assign the case to a detective who also already has a dozen cases, some of them getting quite old by now, but still open. Statistics say that if they haven’t solved the case in the first golden 24 hours that the chances of resolution drop exponentially. The 48 hours goes by and the paperwork is just catching up to the system. The defendant is brought in and the prosecution has nothing, do they let him go simply because they haven’t been able to solve the case or interview more than a few witnesses?
The system fails because a justice system that operated in 48 hours would consume more resources than the energy sector and half of the population would need to be trained investigators and litigators.
I agree the system sucks. But it is the fairest probably ever in the world.
Several years ago, Congress asked the DOJ to provide a list of all the regulations, not laws, that required a jail sentence. The DOJ replied that there were literally hundreds of thousands at every level of government and there was no practical way to list them all. Catch a red fish after the season ends, jail. Disturb a gopher turtle’s eggs, jail. Chop down a tree that happens to contain an eagle’s nest, jail.
One thing we could do to speed things up is get rid of laws that are some knee jerk reaction to a perceived problem.
That’s right so if a serial killer or a mass murderer (say Dylan Root) is poor then I say we should just let them out until trial because bail is so bad
Putative makes no sense here....Do you mean punitive???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.