{"id":1484,"date":"2015-08-16T19:39:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T19:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2016-01-24T13:08:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T13:08:33","slug":"prosecutors-misused-bail-to-squeeze-defendants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=1484","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors misused bail to squeeze defendants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"style361\" style=\"text-align: right;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1485\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/150816Bill.jpg\" alt=\"150816Bill\" width=\"606\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/150816Bill.jpg 606w, https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/150816Bill-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/150816Bill-300x297.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 606px) 100vw, 606px\" \/>Aug. 16, 2015<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cIn 1689, the English Bill of Rights outlawed the widespread practice of keeping defendants in jail by setting deliberately unaffordable bail, declaring that \u2018excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed.\u2019 The same language was adopted word for word a century later in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cBut as bail has evolved in America, it has become less and less a tool for keeping people out of jail, and more and more a trap door for those who cannot afford to pay it&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cAcross the criminal-justice system, bail acts as a tool of compulsion, forcing people who would not otherwise plead guilty to do so&#8230;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style360\" style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>\u2013 From \u201c<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/08\/16\/magazine\/the-bail-trap.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=photo-spot-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Bail Trap<\/em><\/a><em>\u201d by Nick Pinto in the New York Times (Aug. 13)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">Could there be a more bare-faced example of \u201cexcessive bail\u201d than that set for the Edenton Seven?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"auto-style60\">Bob Kelly, $1.5 million (later reduced to $200,000\u00a0<em>\u2013<\/em>\u00a0after his conviction was overturned\u00a0<em>\u2013<\/em>\u00a0then $50,000 )<\/li>\n<li class=\"auto-style60\">Betsy Kelly, $1.8 million (reduced to $400,000)<\/li>\n<li class=\"auto-style60\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=366\">Scott Privott<\/a>, $1 million (reduced to $50,000)<\/li>\n<li class=\"auto-style60\">Shelley Stone, $375,000<\/li>\n<li class=\"auto-style60\">Dawn Wilson, $880,000 (reduced to $200,000)<\/li>\n<li class=\"auto-style60\">Robin Byrum, $500,000 (reduced to $200,000)<\/li>\n<li class=\"auto-style60\">Darlene Harris, $350,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"style184\">Did prosecutors fear that the defendants would flee to Argentina? That they would prowl the town\u2019s playgrounds in search of new victims? No, these absurd amounts surely had no purpose but to coerce confessions. How shocked and disappointed they must have been that not one of the defendants, though crushed financially, succumbed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aug. 16, 2015 \u201cIn 1689, the English Bill of Rights outlawed the widespread practice of keeping defendants in jail by setting deliberately unaffordable bail, declaring that \u2018excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed.\u2019 The same language was adopted word for word a century later in the Eighth Amendment to the United States [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1818,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions\/1818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}