Court Opinion

ID: 9670198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:16:38.483011+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:03.000445
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
concurring in result.
The majority opinion asserts that a “right to bail” does not involve a “fundamental right” guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. It is clear that a denial of any “right to bail,” of necessity, involves a loss of liberty and that the constitutional guaranty that no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process of .law is a “fundamental right.” The United States Supreme Court said: “From the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789 * * * to the present Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure * * * federal law has unequivocally provided that a person arrested for a non-capital offense shall be admitted to bail. This traditional right to freedom before conviction permits the unhampered preparation of a de*872fense, and serves to prevent the infliction of punishment prior to conviction.” (Emphasis supplied.) Stack v. Boyle, 342 U. S. 1, 72 S. Ct. 1, 96 L. Ed. 3. The right to bail is a “fundamental right” of every person, and any constitutional or legislative enactment dealing with it must be strictly construed.
Article I, section 9, of the Nebraska Constitution, since the inception of the state, has always granted every person a right to bail and for all offenses with specified exceptions. The Constitution, even as amended, does not prohibit granting bail in all cases of treason, murder, and the specified sexual offenses. It does not authorize the denial of bail in all cases of treason, murder, and the specified sexual offenses. The Constitution authorizes denial of bail in such cases only where the proof is evident or the presumption great. The judge having jurisdiction to grant or deny a request for bail must make that determination and he cannot make such a determination simply because a charge has been filed. Any attempted restriction on such a constitutional right must necessarily be strictly construed. The critical facts were stipulated here.