The Dallas County Jail. (Photo by Andreas Praefcke from Wikipedia Commons via Courthouse News)
NEW ORLEANS (CN) Sixteen judges of the Fifth Circuit appeared split Wednesday during a special en banc hearing over Dallas County’s bail program that critics say keeps indigent defendants in jail indefinitely because they cannot afford their release.
George Karakatsanis, an attorney for the indigent plaintiffs challenging the system, argued people are being detained for weeks, or even months, simply because they are unable to post bail.
U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, an appointee of George W. Bush, asked at the start of the hearing if she could pose a “practical question,” or a series of such questions: for instance, how would the Dallas County court go about enforcing lesser bail for indigent detainees?
ABA urges appeals court to rule rigid bail system in Dallas County, Texas, unconstitutional Share:
CHICAGO, April 6, 2021 â The American Bar Association filed an amicus brief Monday, contending that the bail system in Dallas County, Texas, which allows pretrial release only if the defendant pays a specific amount of bail money, violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14
th Amendment.
The ABA has filed several similar briefs nationwide, including one several years ago with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5
th Circuit challenging the money bail system in Harris County, Texas, because it did not consider a defendantâs ability to pay. In that Houston area case, the appeals court in 2019 effectively suspended the bail system, but the court did not provide a firm holding, statement of conclusions or guidance for lower courts to use within the circuit. The bail system for misdemeanor offenses was subsequently overhauled by court order and count