Court Opinion

ID: 9452138
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:31:19.060302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:05.139081
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Chief Judge
(dissenting):
I would grant appellant’s motion for release. The District Court found appellant a fit subject for release when it granted bail in the amount of $2,000. But appellant has been unable to find a bondsman willing to write the bond. The question arises whether bail bondsmen or the court should determine the matter of release. We recently held in McCoy v. United States, 123 U.S.App.D.C. 81, 357 F.2d 272, decided January 17, 1966, that it is “manifestly unjust” in these circumstances “to permit professional bondsmen to ‘hold the keys to the jail in their pockets.’” (357 F.2d p. 273). The courts should “provide substitutes, in the case of indigent defendants, for conventional bonds of professional bondsmen.” (357 F.2d p. 273).
I would implement the District Court’s decision admitting appellant to bail by requiring that appellant execute a personal bond of $2,000 signed by two members of his family, and that he live with his family and report to the Probation Officer of the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia.