California court: Holding people without bail is unconstitutional

By Teddy Grant Published: March 26, 2021

California court: Holding people without bail is unconstitutional

In this Aug. 28, 2020, file photo, a no trespassing sign is displayed outside the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind. As Donald Trump’s presidency winds down, his administration is throttling up the pace of federal executions despite a surge of COVID-19 cases in prison, announcing plans for five executions just days before the Jan. 20 inauguration of death penalty foe Joe Biden. Attorney General William Barr defends the action in an interview with The Associated Press and says he will likely schedule additional executions before leaving the Cabinet. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that detaining people who can’t afford bail violates the constitution.

The ruling means that judges have to consider a defendant’s ability to pay when bail is set.

If a defendant cannot pay and a judge doesn’t think they are a threat to society if released, they won’t be able to be kept behind bars, according to HuffPost.

“Whether an accused person is detained pending trial often does not depend on a careful, individualized determination of the need to protect public safety, but merely ― as one judge observes ― the accused’s ability to post the sum provided in a county’s uniform bail schedule,” Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar wrote.

According to HuffPost, the court accepted the case after a man from San Francisco, Kenneth Humphrey, appealed a $600,000 bail set by a judge in 2017 for allegedly robbing his neighbor of a bottle of cologne and $5.

“I am pleased other people will have the same opportunities I had to change their lives and they will not have to wait in jail for years because they are too poor to pay bail,” Humphrey said in a statement on Thursday, according to HuffPost.

In November, Californians voted against a proposition that would have eliminated cash bail.