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report that it should be rights that are
personal rights, and not class rights, rights
which the individual holds as against the
state, or against his government, which
cannot be taken away by legislation. They
should be clearly and very concisely writ-
ten.
The provision in section 8, as I said be-
fore, is the language of the present Con-
stitution. It has been in the Constitution
since 1851 under the language, "excessive
bail shall not be required," or rather, "that
excessive bail ought not to be required."
That is the way that it appears and has
appeared since 1851.
The Committee has very wisely, I think,
changed the wording in the present Bill of
Rights to this: "Excessive bail shall not
be required." This is a very valuable per-
sonal right. It should remain in the con-
stitution, but I again submit that para-
graph B of section 5 should be deleted and
that the first sentence of section 8 is what
we need and is all we need.
The argument was made before the
Committee that a bail reform movement
had taken place. There were too many
people charged with crime who were re-
quired to stay in jail too long before
reaching trial, and that this new provision
would help that.
I wish to contradict that by saying that
in 1965, under our present constitutional
language, the legislature passed a law
known, I think, as the Reform Bail Act,
which provides in part as follows, and I am
quoting: "When from all the circumstances
the court is of the opinion that any accused
person in a criminal case will appear as
required for trial either before or after his
conviction, the person may be released on
his own recognizance."
I do not see how we could have any
broader statute, and as I say, that was
passed under the constitutional language
which we now have. Even before this time,
the Court of Appeals and the legislature,
acting under the rule-making power, had
adopted the rule which applies to bail in
criminal cases, which is Rule 777. That
rule provides, and I am quoting: "Prior
to conviction the accused who is charged
with an offense, the maximum punishment
for which is other than capital, shall be
entitled to be admitted to bail."
In a capital case the accused may be
admitted to bail at the discretion of the
Court. You can see that the rule is even
more liberal than the provision which ap-
pears in section B of section 5 of the re-
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port which I propose to have deleted, be-
cause this would not entitle any person to
bail whatsoever if he were charged in a
capital case.
I might go further and say that while it
is restrictive in that case, it takes away
the discretion of the judge in granting
bail because under this section if a person
is brought before a judge on bail, no matter
what he has done, outside of a capital of-
fense, he is entitled to bail, no matter how
dangerous a person he might be to society,
because the wording of that section is
that he shall be entitled to release pending
trial, conditioned only upon such bail or
other terms as are reasonably necessary to
secure his appearance before the court. It
is as restrictive in capital cases. It takes
away the discretion of the judicial officer
in other than capital cases. My reasons,
therefore, for asking that you support
Amendment A, which will be distributed,
are the following: it is entirely unneces-
sary, in view of what we have in section 8.
It is repetitive, in a way, of section 8. Its
language is not constitutional language but
statutory language. It is both restrictive
and takes away the discretion of the ju-
dicial officer who should pass upon the bail.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my mi-
nority report.
(Second Vice-President William James
assumed tJic Chair.)
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Are
there any questions for the purpose of
clarification?
Delegate Boileau.
DELEGATE BOILEAU: Delegate Child,
are you of the opinion that a person should
not be released if he cannot meet the bail?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding:) : Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: No, sir, because
my argument is this : under our present
language and under our present statute, he
has that right.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Are
there any other questions?
Delegate Fox.
DELEGATE FOX: Judge Child, I never
had any difficulty with regard to arranging
bail when I had the matter before a judge.
The trouble that I have had with the bail
situation is when the arrest comes on Fri-
day night. It seems to me that it would be
desirable if we had in Maryland a certain
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