Free Republic

CHICAGO — Four months after hearing arguments, the Illinois Supreme Court will release an opinion on Tuesday that will either eliminate cash bail in the state or keep it as the law of the land. The court “anticipates” releasing its opinion in Rowe v. Raoul at 9 a.m., according to a statement. The state legislature sweeping criminal justice legislation passed in 2021, known as the SAFE-T Act, banned using cash deposits as a pre-trial release “surety” effective January 1, 2023. But dozens of state’s attorneys, sheriffs, and other local officials filed lawsuits challenging the law’s constitutionality. Those cases were combined...

On New Year’s Day, a dangerous but hilariously misnamed new law was set to take effect in Illinois. The “SAFE-T Act” was scheduled to alter the state’s handling of criminal prosecutions in ways that would make it much harder to prosecute and imprison criminals. One of the key facets of the bill would bring an end to cash bail in most cases, allowing even more suspects to be immediately put back out onto the streets after being detained. Prosecutors from across the state sued to prevent the rule from going into effect and last Wednesday a county judge found the...

The case of the young Buffalo mother who police say was killed at the hands of her abusive husband freed from jail without bail could cost Gov. Kathy Hochul the election, a former Clinton pollster said. Mark Penn told Fox News Wednesday that the brutal Oct. 4 murder of Keaira Bennefield shot by her estranged husband in front of her three children could sway voters away from the incumbent candidate. “Crime is the number one issue in New York State,” Penn said. “This horrific murder — in which someone beats her first and then is let out on the street...

For the second time in as many election cycles, Democrats are launching an 11th-hour rescue mission to save the very House campaigns chief responsible for protecting vulnerable incumbents and preserving their fragile House majority. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s decision to spend more than $600,000 on TV ads to bolster its chairman, New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, came as cash-rich Republicans dumped millions into the once-sleepy race and Democrats retreated in other battleground districts around the country. The move came Monday shortly after the election handicapper Cook Political Report moved Maloney’s race for New York’s 17th Congressional District from...

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled by San Francisco voters Tuesday night, and when speaking to supporters afterward, said that he was recalled because of general frustrations about San Francisco crime and economic hardship brought on by the pandemic. "People are angry, they're frustrated, and I want to be very clear about what happened tonight: The right-wing billionaires outspent us three to one, they exploited an environment in which people are appropriately upset, and they created an electoral dynamic where we were literally shadowboxing," Boudin said. "Voters were not given an opportunity to choose between criminal justice reform...

The long and disturbing rap sheet of Frank James, the black nationalist New York City subway shooter arrested on Wednesday and charged by federal prosecutors with one count of committing a terrorist act against a mass transportation system, ought to serve as a national wake-up call. The 24 hour-plus nerve-racking manhunt ended in anticlimactic fashion, with James apparently calling the NYPD to report his own location. But the Brooklyn shooting, which left 10 people with gunshot wounds and 19 others injured in the resulting fracas, stands as the bloodiest act of carnage in the history of the New York City...

Gascón ally calls the actions "symbolic, pointless, and partisan attempts to aid a floundering recall effort.”. As organizers of an effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón say they are working closely with county officials to finalize the petition, three more cities declared “no confidence” in the progressive prosecutor this week. “City leaders are beginning to see what citizens and victims have known: George Gascon threatens the safety of our communities with his pro-criminal policies and actions,” read an email blast from Victims of Violent Crime for the Recall of District Attorney Gascón. “Together, we can recall...

An Illinois state senator who sponsored recently-signed legislation that will eliminate cash bail in the state by 2023 is outraged that a man who allegedly flashed a gun at him while driving only had to post $1,500 to get out of jail. “By him being released on bail, he’s free to do this again,” Sen. Elgie Sims of Chicago told the State-Journal Register. Yet just last month Sims tweeted, “money bond doesn’t guarantee public safety or someone’s appearance in court, it supports a system where freedom is based on the size of someone’s bank account. We’ve tried the failed tough...

Leaders in Oregon and Washington are finally pledging an end to near-nightly chaos caused by antifa and other radical groups they gave free rein to while former President Donald Trump was in office. But they have a problem with their proposed crackdown. Bail reforms in liberal states are hoisting Democrats by their own petard...

In the wake of the brutal death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man killed by a white police officer while in custody, people all over the country have united to protest police violence and call for charges to be brought against the police officers responsible for his death. Others have backed up social action with dollars, flocking to grassroots organizations in the state of Minnesota to support protesters on the ground. One of these organizations is the Minnesota Freedom Fund, an abolitionist-focused group working toward ending cash bail in Minnesota and nationally. Over the past few days, a Twitter trend...

"Today we announced a formal policy ending the use of money bail by our prosecutors as a condition for pretrial detention. From this point forward, pretrial detention will be based on public safety, not on wealth."

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor said Wednesday his office will stop jailing people who cannot afford to pay cash bail in minor criminal cases, affirming the commitment of the country’s fifth-largest city to a national movement that argues the practice targets poor Americans. District Attorney Larry Krasner said his decision to instruct city prosecutors not to seek a bail payment in a number of misdemeanor and non-violent felony crimes will correct a criminal justice system that discriminates against African-Americans, Latinos and poor people. “There is absolutely no reason why someone who will show up for court, is not a risk of flight,...