Word: bailed
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Elsewhere, 700 U.S. commissioners issue warrants, set bail; and determine whether there is probable cause to hold an accused person pending grand-jury action. Most of them can try petty cases and mete out sentences up to six months. Yet 30% of the commissioners are not lawyers; all are paid only by fees (annual maximum: $10,500) that impoverish the able, particularly among fulltime commissioners, and tempt the greedy to issue shaky warrants. The system is now under fire in Congress...
...Freedom. Perhaps the best argument against the commissioners is that the eight pioneering judges of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan have done so well without them. Twenty years ago, the Michigan court's Detroit branch banished commissioners because they had become too chummy with bail bondsmen; worse, they often went easier on the clients of crony lawyers, while hiking bail astronomically in response to public pressure whenever grisly crimes hit the headlines...
...result, despite an increasing flood of federal cases, the Detroit judges themselves took over the commissioners' jobs, a move that has notably improved and speeded up justice. In setting bail, the judges now seek to release as many defendants as possible before trial-regardless of their ability to satisfy the tough requirements of security-minded bondsmen. The practice is not only in line with the law's presumption of innocence until a guilty verdict, it also enables defendants to hire better lawyers and help prepare their own cases, to say nothing of saving taxpayers the cost of keeping...
...Detroit court, if relatives or friends agree to pay the amount set as bail should the defendant take it on the lam, the defendant may be released in the custody of those relatives or friends -or even of himself. No cash is lodged with the court...
...they have shielded youngsters from the rigors of the adversary system, juvenile courts have operated farther and farther outside the Constitution. Today young Americans generally have no right to bail, counsel or public jury trial. One quarter of the country's juvenile court judges have had no legal training; lawyers appear in less than 5% of juvenile cases. Committal is often based on hearsay evidence; the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt is not required. Not only does incarceration often exceed adult sentences for the same offenses; for lack of youth facilities, 100,000 delinquents a year wind...