On Monday, North Carolina lawmakers will return to the state capitol with plans to tighten rules around bail and pretrial release for people accused of crimes. The proposed legislation would require that people arrested in the state pay a cash bail to be released from jail before trial if they have a prior violent offense on their record.
The push comes on the heels of the fatal, unprovoked stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a commuter train in August. Footage of the attack went viral and was amplified by some right-wing commentators and political figures, including President Donald Trump, as proof that lenient bail policies are allowing violent criminals to roam the streets.
The alleged attacker, Decarlos Brown Jr, had a long criminal history and had been released without posting bail after his most recent arrest. It’s not clear that the newly proposed bill, had it been law at the time, could have prevented Zarutska’s death. The maximum sentence for the crime in Brown’s most recent arrest — for misdemeanor misuse of 911 — is 120 days. A retired North Carolina judge noted that even if Brown had been denied bail altogether, he almost certainly would have been released by April, long before the August stabbing.
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Republicans in New York are also working to advance new bail laws that would limit pretrial release, more than five years after a hotly contested bail reform package was signed into law. Currently, the state is somewhat of an outlier on pretrial release due to a 1971 law that makes it illegal for judges there to consider a person’s “dangerousness” when setting bail. The bill proposed earlier this month would allow considering dangerousness, and make it a key factor in release decisions.
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Then there’s Texas, which passed comprehensive and bipartisan bail-stiffening laws earlier this summer, including limiting the situations where people are eligible for cashless bond – or released without paying money. Voters there will also consider a state constitutional amendment this fall that would ban bail altogether for defendants charged with certain violent crimes.
Working as intended.