Meh.
Rep. Andrew Murr
The Texas House on Tuesday passed a bill to alter the way criminal defendants can be released from jail before trial. The priority legislation would, in part, require judicial officers to use a risk assessment tool when making bail decisions and ban cashless release for those accused of some violent or sexual crimes.
House members approved House Bill 20 after significant changes — largely by the bill’s author — were made on the floor Monday.
“The goal today is to strike a balance in which we provide … credible information to our trained magistrates so that they can determine that those that are low risk have a chance to get out while those who are higher risk, with a violent offense or a violent criminal history, they don’t easily pay and immediately walk on the street the next day and do something else that harms us,” state Rep. Andrew Murr, the Junction Republican who authored the bill, said Monday.
Named the Damon Allen Act after a slain state trooper, HB 20 was deemed an emergency item by Gov. Greg Abbott at the beginning of the legislative session after similar legislation failed in 2019. The suspect in Allen’s shooting death during a 2017 traffic stop was out of jail on cash bail at the time.
After tentatively approving the bill Monday, the House finally passed HB 20 on a 98-to-46 vote Tuesday. It is now headed to the Senate — where its future is uncertain. Last month, the Senate passed a competing priority bail bill which varies significantly from the House’s measure. Senate Bill 21 since has stalled in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
When making bail decisions, courts decide what restrictions are needed to release from jail a defendant who is legally presumed innocent while ensuring the person comes back to court and does not present a threat to public safety. Most often in Texas, that decision is currently based on a dollar amount.
The cash-reliant system has long prompted criticisms from bail reform advocates who argue it unfairly keeps poor people locked up while similar defendants with cash walk free. And federal courts have found bail practices in Texas’ two most populous counties unconstitutional for discriminating against poor defendants.
See here for the background. As this Chron editorial notes, HB20 is better than SB21 but still falls short because of its prioritization of cash bail. A fair and just system does not determine who gets to go home and who gets to stay locked up for weeks or months before even going on trial based on ability to pay. As Grits noted a month ago, any bail-related bill that has Greg Abbott’s support is highly unlikely to be upheld by the federal courts going forward. As such, the best move is to vote against HB20 and SB21, and wait for further direction from the Fifth Circuit.
Meanwhile, Rosalie Cook was not available for comment.
https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/career-criminal-identified-as-man-shot-to-death-by-police/285-1b497b9e-616a-4728-8787-de53878d1f40
“Robber who killed 80-year-old at Houston Walgreens store was out of jail on two felony PR bonds
Houston police shot and killed a man who stabbed an 80-year-old woman to death Saturday.”
Maybe if the murderer’s own mimaw had put her house up as collateral for bail, the guy would have thought twice about committing a crime that would cause mimaw to be homeless. Not that that’s a guarantee, but shouldn’t we at least TRY to keep stuff like this from happening, going forward?
Waiting on Paul Kubosh to comment.
Well said Bill. Plenty of people dead because of the lies of bail reform. Crime, crime, crime. People make a decision about what type of world they want to live in.