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done and I would urge Delegate James to
continue the work of the legislature in this
field rather than to draft a bad constitu-
tional section.
In Baltimore City, we are now engaged
in a wonderful project of releasing people
who are accused of crime simply on the
study that is made by competent social
workers, people trained to make an exami-
nation into whether or not these people
ought to be released on their own recogni-
zance.
Sorry to say, the money for this project
is running out, and many people who ought
to be released are not being released, not
because of bad administration, not because
judges will not listen, but simply because
the funds are not available for the studies
to be made.
Now, you ask me, what is wrong with
this language. First, it is statutory. It ought
to be in the statutes. The statutes are good.
They ought to be expanded.
I fought for this for a long, long time,
and I am happy to see the day that this is
taking place, where you do not have to go to
a professional bondsman. Here is what is
required under the circumstances.
Last night I wrote out what I thought
was an extreme case, but there is not any-
thing extreme about it, as I think. Bear
with me for just a minute or so.
Suppose three or four of us delegates are
walking by this State House and somebody
from the rooftop is shooting at us with a
rifle. Fortunately, two of us escape. Only
one is hit, but not killed. Therefore, it is
not a capital case.
This man clearly, from the outward ap-
pearances, is homicidal. The police rush to
get him and he threatens to jump and com-
mit suicide. Clearly, he is suicidal.
Bear in mind, this is not a capital case.
Under this section he is the accused. There
is no capital case. He is entitled to release
pending trial, conditioned only upon these
situations: upon such bail, or other terms
as are reasonably necessary to secure his
appearance before the court.
How could you set terms that are reason-
ably necessary to insure his appearance
before the court and make those terms a
form of incarceration? What becomes of
the discretion of the judge, who wants to
send this man to Spring Grove for psy-
chiatric examination ? What becomes of the
court's discretion to determine whether or
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not for the man's own safety he ought to be
allowed out?
I am saying to you, this is a badly drawn
section. It has no place in the constitution
because everything that we want for the
protection of the accused and for the pro-
tection of society can be accomplished by
the statute.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have less than a
minute, Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I am all for it.
I am sure all of you are. What I am saying
to you is that we ought to strike down
section B completely. We ought to ac-
complish these tremendous steps forward
that are now taking place in this wide field
and continue them with all the help we can
get from the General Assembly and every
other agency of government that will help
us. But this section is bad.
I urge you to vote for the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: How much time do
we have remaining, please?
THE CHAIRMAN: You have a little over
ten minutes.
DELEGATE BOTHE: I will yield three
minutes to Delegate Fox.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Fox.
DELEGATE FOX: Mr. Chairman, Ladies
and gentlemen of the Committee, in connec-
tion with Judge Sherbow's remarks, I
would refer to the back page of the Morn-
ing Sun, which says that a 28-year-old
mother of an infant child who had been
held in jail without bail since November 19
on an arson charge yesterday won release
on $1,000 bail after habeas corpus hearings
before Judge Shirley B. Jones.
The problem with bail in Maryland is not
so much in the cases where you can get
your client before a judge, but the problem
is when they are arrested on Friday night,
you cannot find a judge until perhaps Mon-
day afternoon, or Monday morning, and the
client stays in jail for that period of time.
Part of the problem of course is that the
police officer has no discretion as to whether
or not to take the person into custody and
there is nothing he can do but lock him up.
He takes him down to jail and the jailer
says there is nothing he can do but hold
him, until there is a collateral of two or
three hundred dollars, and the man is not
able to get it on Friday night, or on Satur-
day night.
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