I think that someone charged with murdering his child's mother over a custody dispute should remain in jail until trial. As it stands, releasing him punished the random person that he killed last night.
That applies to any person released on bail for any offense who gets in an accident. Had they still been in custody the accident wouldn’t have happened. Where do we draw that line? Should there be a limit on pretrial incarceration?
As someone who represents people charged with murder, let me first say that a trial within six months of an arrest is WAAAY too soon. You need time to go through discovery, conduct an investigation, consult with experts, etc. And on top with that, we have a lot of other cases to deal with. The state usually has everything it needs pretty early on and has vast resources that the defendant does not have. The defense starts off behind the 8-ball. Having a trial so soon in such a case would be very unfair to the defendant and would prejudice him/her. The defense needs time.
I agree your first two sentences present a conundrum. I considered my use of the term “accident” but decided to stick with it because while negligent, crashing his vehicle was not intentional. But your point is taken.
I understand the second sentence but not the first. Are you suggesting that no one should be held in jail pending trial?
Prisons should be for violent criminals. Put people in prison for drugs, nonviolent and white-collar crimes to work to the benefit of the community.
I agree that we shouldn’t be putting drug users and most non-violent criminals in prison.
I would not quibble. But if there are people accused if white collar crimes in prison and murderers and rapist walking around because there is no jail space, that is the issue.
The point is it is very often a good idea to set large bonds for murder defendants and other non-victimless criminal cases. It helps ensure that the defendant actually appears court. Ideally, it also helps ensure that the defendant doesn't do something homicidal in the community while awaiting trial; for example driving while impaired at 110 mph while running from the cops one month after being charged with first degree murder.
Are you saying that, regardless of the crime, everyone should be released because they haven't been convicted?
Aside from drug trafficking cases, which carry mandatory minimums based on quantity, the vast majority of non-violent criminals who are in prison are there because they originally got probation and subsequently screwed that up
For misdemeanors and light felonies, there absolutely should be some limit, or at least some check, on pretrial confinement. Way too many people spend way too many days in county jail for dinky stuff; because they have no dough and no friends.
