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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: The question is
simply where are the waters muddied?
Where possibly could there be any conflict
or confusion through the existence of this
provision, which simply states a principle
which the courts would have to follow?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Henderson.
DELEGATE HENDERSON: I think
that has been sufficiently explained by
some of the other speakers. When you give
a constitutional right to release in a matter
of this kind, you create limitations of vari-
ous sorts upon the right to hold, which I
think is undesirable, as has been pointed
out.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bothe, do
you desire to allot any further time for
debate?
DELEGATE BOTHE: I understand I
have six minutes.
THE CHAIRMAN: That is correct.
DELEGATE BOTHE: I will allot three
of them to Delegate Bennett.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: Ladies and
gentlemen of the Convention, I think this
is a very important proviso to include in
the constitution.
Judge Child has said that this is un-
necessary. Well, for nearly a hundred
years we had the other proviso in the Con-
stitution of Maryland in effect, and yet
people were being held in jail, subjected
to the corrupting influences of the jail,
merely because they were poor. Not until
the other states demonstrated the possi-
bility of releasing people on their own
recognizance, permitting them to hold their
jobs, holding together their families, did
Maryland take any action.
It is important it seems to me, to in-
clude this in for that reason. As it is now,
in large sections of the State an arbitrary
list of bail requirements are included and
made available for the committing magis-
trate without any reference whatsoever to
the possibility that the person is going to
show up for trial, and there cannot be any
question that on occasion this is used as a
method of punishment.
They are setting high bail or they are
refusing bail. They do this largely be-
cause of the fact they are judging a person
guilty prior to trial.
In addition to that, it is a system of
preventative detention, which every Ameri-
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can shuns. We do not want any method
where the court can arbitrarily lock up a
person on the theory that possibly he might
commit a crime of one kind or another.
I urge rejection of the minority report.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: The remaining
time is three minutes?
THE CHAIRMAN: Approximately.
DELEGATE BOTHE: I will yield to
Delegate Bamberger.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have about four
minutes.
Delegate Bamberger.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: Mr. Chair-
man, ladies and gentlemen of the Conven-
tion, the supporters of the minority report
argue that section 8 and section 5-B are
redundant. I submit that is a simplistic
argument. It avoids the issue and perhaps
avoids it because this amendment does put
to us a difficult question.
They are not redundant and not repeti-
tive. Section 8 says that if bail is set it
shall not be excessive, it shall not be so
high that it is unreasonable, considering
the nature of the crime charged, and the
nature of the defendant, but section 5 says
more. Section 5-B says that the General
Assembly shall never in any moment of
public outrage about particular crimes, in
any moment of particular passion say that
a person arrested for this crime shall not
be admitted to bail.
What it puts to us is the question of
whether or not we are willing to imple-
ment that particular concern of our civiliza-
tion which sets us apart from so many
others, that statement that no man is
guilty until proven guilty, that statement
that every man, no matter how charged
with a crime, no matter how serious the
crime, is innocent, absolutely innocent un-
til he has a trial under due process of law,
a fair trial, in which he is found guilty.
Those words appear nowhere in this con-
stitution, but now we are asked to put
words in the constitution which implement
that principle. We all find it difficult to
implement that principle.
How many times do you read in the
newspaper the account of a particular
crime, the account of the defendant, and
been assured that man is guilty? How
many of you have served on a criminal
jury and found how difficult it is to imple-
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