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DELEGATE BOTHE: Is it your view
that that is a fair way to approach the
circumstance?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: I do not know of
any other way to secure a man's appear-
ance in court.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: Judge Child, as
a member of the Committee, you heard
considerable evidence, did you not, that the
present system requiring the posting of
professional bail through bondsmen did
not work any better than the various ex-
periments that have been tried in Balti-
more and in other parts of the country?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: Those were for
minor offenses.
DELEGATE BOTHE: Are you sure of
that?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: All the testimony
that I heard.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: I believe you
were not present perhaps during some of
the testimony.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Bothe, that is not a question, is it?
DELEGATE BOTHE: Did you hear all
the testimony that came before the Com-
mittee on the subject?
DELEGATE CHILD: I do not know.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Do
you have further questions, Delegate
Bothe?
DELEGATE BOTHE: Do you feel,
Judge Child, that the present system of
professional bond-posting is workable and
realistic?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: I do not have
enough knowledge on that to talk about it.
We do not have bondsmen in the county.
People who commit rather serious crimes,
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if they have had a clear record before, and
we know they are going to appear in court,
can be released on very nominal bond.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: Judge Child,
you indicated your satisfaction with the
recent statute passed in 1965.
DELEGATE CHILD: No, sir, I did not.
I did not indicate any dissatisfaction with
the statute. My point was that under our
present constitutional language, you could
pass that statute which they did, and could
pass any more lenient statute, and there-
fore you did not need the new language in
the constitution.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: Well, Judge
Child, setting aside for the moment wheth-
er or not you are satisfied -with that statute,
what remedy would an individual have who
was committed arbitrarily to jail now in
order to prevent him from committing what
the judge might think was some dangerous
act?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: He always has the
right of a writ of habeas corpus to appear,
and make the State show evidence why he
should be held.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: That is rather
a weak weapon, is it not, Judge?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: Is is what?
DELEGATE BENNETT: It is rather a
weak remedy to file for a writ of habeas
corpus.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: It is one of the
strongest remedies in the entire section of
law.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: I -will debate
that with you further. Do you feel, how-
ever, that the only remedy he has under
that act, if he was committed for preven-
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