Opinion ID: 2219129
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Sufficient Sureties in Historical Perspective.

Text: It is generally accepted that the concept of bail arose in medieval England as a method by which feudal sheriffs could, at their discretion, release prisoners from squalid local jails while they waited for traveling judges to arrive in the area and conduct any necessary trials. Bail: An Ancient Practice Reexamined, 70 Yale L.J. 966, 966 (1961) [hereinafter Yale article]; Ronald L. Goldfarb, Ransom: A Critique of the American Bail System 23-24 (1965); Daniel J. Freed & Patricia M. Wald, Bail in the United States 1 (1964); see also June Carbone, Seeing Through the Emperor's New Clothes: Rediscovery of Basic Principles in the Administration of Bail, 34 Syracuse L.Rev. 517, 519-21 (1983). But see Goldfarb at 6, 21-23 (noting other possible origins of bail). A prisoner's release was often conditioned on his or her delivery into the hands of a surety, a responsible third-party known to the sheriff and the prisoner, who guaranteed the presence of the accused for any further court proceedings. Freed & Wald at 1; Jonathan Drimmer, When Man Hunts Man: The Rights and Duties of Bounty Hunters in the American Criminal Justice System, 33 Hous. L.Rev. 731, 745 (1996). If the surety failed to deliver the accused at the appropriate time, he became personally responsible for providing some recompense to the state. Freed & Wald at 1; Yale article at 966. In the beginning, the surety was seen as literally standing in the place of the prisoner, thus permitting the state to punish the surety in the same way it would have punished the absent prisoner. Drimmer, 33 Hous. L.Rev. at 744 n. 60; see also Carbone, 34 Syracuse L.Rev. at 520. Bail guarantees linked to monetary or property forfeiture were not conceived of initially and only developed over time. See Freed & Wald at 1. The medieval bail system sustained itself by serving the interrelated interests of the state, the prisoner, and the surety. The state avoided the costs of jailing a prisoner, forfeiting direct supervision for a guarantee that the prisoner would be returned at the appropriate time. The prisoner gained temporary freedom, supervision by an individual often of their own choosing, and the tantalizing opportunity to skip bail and avoid punishment. As a counterbalance to the threat of physical or monetary forfeiture, sureties were granted wide-ranging powers to ensure the accused remained under their control. Unfortunately, the system was rife with corruption, characterized by inconsistent application, and often harsh in its outcomes. See Carbone, 34 Syracuse L.Rev. at 323-24; Goldfarb at 26. In an attempt to alleviate these problems, the bail system's precepts were codified and regulated by the Statute of Westminster in 1275. Carbone, 34 Syracuse L.Rev. at 523-24. While the Statute codified problematic contemporary bail practices, it also provided the first standardization of those practices and allowed for the bail system to be uniformly administered for the first time. Id.; Yale article at 966. It accomplished this in part by specifying the conditions under which pretrial release was permissible and limit[ing] the power of the sheriff to determining sufficient security in each case, a power subsequently transferred to justices of the peace. Yale article at 966. It also provided a rudimentary recognition of a right to bail for at least that small class of prisoners whom the local sheriff was now required to allow to be bailed. Carbone, 34 Syracuse L.Rev. at 523. Each of these concepts would be restated and reapplied over ensuing centuries, but remained at the core of nearly all bail systems. [3] See id. at 527-33. When the first English colonists arrived in America in the seventeenth century, they brought the bail system with them. Id. at 529. However, they were largely disenchanted with the confusing and conflicting categories of the [Statute of Westminster] and colonial constitutions forged a new definition of the right to bail. Id.; see also Goldfarb at 26-27 (describing the subsequent evolution of some of the reforms generated by the Statute of Westminster). Importantly, the first constitutive documents of the colonies, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641) and the Pennsylvania Constitution (1682), each included mandatory bail provisions with a sufficient sureties clause. Carbone, 34 Syracuse L.Rev. at 530-32. The Pennsylvania provision was later incorporated into the state's first post-independence constitution, providing a model for other state constitution drafters to follow. See id. at 532; see also Yale article at 977 app. (listing state constitutions containing a sufficient sureties clause). At the same time, the dramatic expansion of the colonial population and the seemingly limitless frontier beyond the colonies' borders provoked some necessary alterations to the way the system had traditionally functioned. Individuals' ties to their local community became increasingly attenuated; most colonists were, by nature, new to their communities and arrived with limited or non-existent connections to their fellow citizens. Drimmer, 33 Hous. L.Rev. at 748-49. These factors made it difficult for a sheriff to judge the trustworthiness of sureties and defendants based on personal knowledge. Id. at 748. Although sureties in England had utilized monetary and property based guarantees, the colonial bail system soon became dependent on them as a substitute for personal surety. Moreover, this dependence created a business opportunity, and by the mid-nineteenth century, the personal surety system had evolved into a commercial bond system, with bondsmen charging fees to serve as sureties. Id. at 749; see also Peggy M. Tobolowsky & James F. Quinn, Drug-Related Behavior as a Predictor of Defendant Pretrial Misconduct, 25 Tex. Tech L.Rev. 1019, 1019 n. 2 (1994) (During the nineteenth century, a commercial or professional bondsman system gradually replaced the personal surety system.); Freed & Wald at 3. Coincidentally, it was during this same era that the citizens of the territory of Iowa approved our first constitution and Iowa was admitted as a state.