Opinion ID: 2025785
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Appellate Courts May Reconsider Bail

Text: Although Ind. Code § 35-33-9-1 assigns the question of bail pending appeal to the discretion of the trial court, our appellate rules contemplate a role for the appellate courts as well. If the stay is denied by the trial court or judge thereof, the appellate tribunal may reconsider the application at any time after denial upon a proper showing by certified copies of the trial court's action and grant or deny the same and fix the bond. Ind.Appellate Rule 6(B) (emphasis added). [6] The appellate tribunal means the appellate court hearing the direct appeal. This Court would hear such applications in those civil and criminal cases for which we hear direct appeals under Ind.Appellate Rule 4. In the majority of criminal cases, the Court of Appeals would consider such requests. [7] As our Court of Appeals has observed, it would be unconstitutional to repose in the trial court the exclusive power to determine whether a petitioner should be let to bail pending appeal. Willis v. State (1986), Ind. App., 492 N.E.2d 45.