Category: Bail

Catch-and-Release Has a Cost — It Just Gets Pushed Behind the Curtain

by · Feb 9, 2021 11:41 pm

But the curtain will get pulled back in this space.  Here’s the story’s opening paragraph:

Jerry Lyons, 31, had spent his entire adult life committing crimes. He had dozens of arrests in California — attempted robbery, burglary, evading police, driving a stolen vehicle, weapons charges, drug charges, shoplifting, trespassing, etc. — but kept getting turned loose until Thursday, when he finally killed somebody. Sheria Musyoka, 26, was an immigrant from Kenya who had graduated from Dartmouth and moved to San Francisco with his wife and three-year-old son. Lyons was behind the wheel of a stolen car when he killed Musyoka.

It doesn’t get any better.

Continue reading . . .

Chipping away at cash bail in California

by · Aug 24, 2020 1:57 pm

In re Humphrey (S247278) has been fully briefed and pending before the California Supreme Court for almost two years.  As a general rule, a published Court of Appeal opinion has “no binding or precedential effect” while review is pending (Calif. Rules of Court 8.1115(e)(1)).  The California Supreme Court, however, may so order otherwise (Calif. Rules of Court 8.1115(e)(3)).  As reported by Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle, last week, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asked the court to utilize its authority to reclassify the Court of Appeal’s opinion as “binding and precedential” while the case is pending review.  Becerra claims that the issue of keeping people incarcerated due to “their inability to afford bail has become critically important because of ‘the unexpected change in circumstances caused by the unprecedented impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic.'”

Kenneth Humphrey, a repeat offender, was charged with robbery and burglary.  Bail was initially set at $600,000, then later reduced to $350,000.  Humphrey’s request for pretrial release on his own recognizance without financial conditions was denied by the trial court.  The Court of Appeal decision granted Humphrey a new bail hearing in which inquiry must be made on his ability to pay money bail.  If unable to pay money bail, non-monetary alternatives must be addressed. CJLF filed an amicus brief in the case that can be found here.

Continue reading . . .

Bail Reform at Work for Granny

by · Jun 17, 2020 12:03 pm

“Bail reform” has been one of the most prominent of the innovations the Left has been pushing.  The theory is that no one should be held in jail simply because he can’t pay cash bail to assure his later court appearance.  That would be the “criminalizing of poverty,” to use one of their favorite phrases.  Moreover, it would interrupt (and often for practical purposes end) the defendant’s employment, such as that might be.  We need to overcome our class-ridden, knee-jerk punitive responses to embrace “real solutions” and compassion.

Heard that before?

OK.  Here, in a video that justifiably has gone viral, is what compassion looks like.

 

Continue reading . . .

Reforming New York’s Bail Reform: A Public Safety-Minded Proposal

by · Mar 5, 2020 4:09 pm

Rafael Mangual has this issue brief for the Manhattan Institute with the above title.

After enacting a sweeping bail reform, New York lawmakers have drawn the ire of constituents who are troubled by the many stories of repeat and serious offenders—some with violent criminal histories—being returned to the street following their arrests. In the state’s biggest city, the public’s growing concerns are buttressed by brow-raising, if preliminary, crime data, amplifying calls for amending or repealing the bail reform.

Continue reading . . .