Court Opinion

ID: 9595499
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:41:06.613466+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:28.014515
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Justice
(concurring as to remand, but dissenting in part).
One of the cardinal principles of interpretation, whether of a statutory or a constitutional provision, is that the intent and purpose of its framers should be given effect. In this instance that purpose was to combat the steady and alarming increase in crimes, particularly by career criminals, who are often no sooner caught and locked up then they are out on bail to commit other crimes. To combat this evil our legislature proposed and our electorate adopted as an amendment, the addition to Section *2378 of Article 1 of our Constitution shown within the brackets:
All prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption strong [or where a person is accused of the commission of a felony while on probation or parole, or while free on bail awaiting trial on a previous felony charge and where the proof is evident or the presumption strong.]
It is significant that as to a person awaiting trial before conviction, there is an express limitation: to a “previous felony charge.” But as to probation and parole after conviction there is no such restriction. The framers obviously had the distinction in mind and could easily have so stated had that been their intention.
It is my opinion that when the emphasized addition to the constitutional provision is considered in the light of the purpose of its adoption, there is neither justification nor desirability of any labored effort to read into it something that is not there: that is, distinction between one being on probation for misdemeanor (many of which are serious antisocial offenses) and a felony. Its language says simply and plainly: that if a person is either on probation or parole (and without restriction as to whether for a felony or misdea-meanor), and is thereafter accused of a felony, plus the fact that “the proof is evident or the presumption strong” as to the new charge, there is no constitutional mandate that he must be granted bail. And it therefore may be denied.
In accordance with the above, it is my judgment that when a person is in any one of the three stated conditions, then the court shall determine, either on the representations of respective counsel, or upon a hearing if he thinks that is necessary, whether on the new charge “the proof is evident or the presumption strong”; and if he thinks that it is, the court may deny that person bail. I would remand for that purpose.