Court Opinion

ID: 9449508
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:14:13.090502+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:52.027077
License: Public Domain

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I join with Chief Judge Bazelon in his hope for reform of bail proceedings. Certainly the professional bondsman system as used in this District is odious at best. The effect of such a system is that the professional bondsmen hold the keys to the jail in their pockets. They determine for whom they will act as surety— who in their judgment is a good risk. The bad risks, in the bondsmen’s judgment, and the ones who are unable to pay the bondsmen’s fees, remain in jail. The ■court and the commissioner are relegated to the relatively unimportant chore of fixing the amount of bail.
The result of this system in the District of Columbia is that most defendants, for months on end, languish in jail unable to make bond awaiting disposition ■of their cases. Instead of being allowed the opportunity of obtaining worthwhile employment to support their families, and perhaps to pay at least in part for their defense, almost 90 per cent of the defendants proceed in forma pauperis, thus casting an unfair burden on the members of the bar of this community who are required to represent these defendants without pay.
When the long-delayed bail reforms finally become a reality, it is hoped that the accent will be on allowing defendants release on their own recognizance, with adequate and certain penalties for nonappearance. Today fugitives do not go very far or maintain their status as such very long, so no money guarantee is required to insure their appearance when ordered. Encouragement to appear should not be in the form of loss of the bondsman’s money, but rather in loss of the defendant’s liberty. Actually, under the professional bondsman system the only one who loses money for non-appearance is the professional bondsman, the money paid to obtain the bond being lost to the defendant in any event.
While we are waiting for the hoped-for reforms, we must decide applications for bail under the present rules. Rule 46(a) (2), F.R.Cr.P., provides that “[b]ail may be allowed pending appeal * * And it is clear that it should be allowed on terms which “will insure the presence of the defendant, having regard to the nature and circumstances of the offense charged, the weight of the evidence against him, the financial ability of the defendant to give bail and the character of the defendant.” Rule 46(c), F.R.Cr.P. Special emphasis, of course, should be placed on “the financial ability of the defendant to give bail,” because if the defendant cannot make the bail set, he is effectively denied bail. See Bandy v. United States, 81 S.Ct. 197, 5 L.Ed.2d 218 (1960). Nevertheless, the financial ability of the defendant under the present rule is only one of four criteria to be considered in determining what amount of bail will insure the presence of the defendant. Obviously the other three may not be overlooked completely, even if considering them, along with the financial ability of the defendant, results in an inability to make the bail.
In any event, the question of amount of bail is always before the court. The court is not required to accept unsupported assertions, such as made here, that the appellant has a job waiting for him, while his wife remains in jail, or that he cannot make more than $2,500 bail. The record shows he made $5,000 bail in the District Court before his conviction. The best way to test whether or not he can make $5,000 pending appeal is to set the bail at $5,000. If he does not make it, then the court can entertain an application for reduction of bail.