|
some caseworkers. That has been the ap-
proach to it.
I suggest that this process is underway
and will be continued and that adopting or
rejecting this will not expedite it one iota.
Furthermore, it seems to me by putting
it in the constitution in such broad terms
you may create more problems than you
solve because this amendment is obviously
designed for witnesses in civil cases and
all sorts of things which certainly would
require some legislation or rules to imple-
ment, and that process is now well under-
way, so it would be my thought that it
would be unwise and unnecessary to include
it in the constitution.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Koger.
DELEGATE KOGER: Mr. Chairman
and ladies and gentlemen, I think this is a
very necessary amendment. We have heard
so many things that the Legislative Coun-
cil has under consideration that if you go
to the legislative reference room you will
find it a graveyard of things of this kind.
We should consider which things are
evident in what we are considering now.
To Judge Child I want to say when you
have to post a five hundred dollar bond,
it will cost you about fifty dollars. I do not
know whether you know that around Bal-
timore very few people have fifty dollars
to put up to pay for a bond. That means
whether they are guilty or innocent, they
have to be put in jail. I think this is a
most necessary amendment.
It says in here "to such restraints as
necessary." I recall having served on a
grand jury. I recall on one occasion where
a lady Avho had been criminally attacked
was put in jail as a witness because she
was unable to do anything about it. She
was held against herself as a witness.
There are conditions such as these that this
amendment, I think, will cure.
Therefore, I think this amendment
should be supported, and it is a very neces-
sary one in order to obtain justice for
people.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Burdette,
do you desire to speak in opposition?
DELEGATE BURDETTE: I do not, Mr.
President. I wish to seek information.
THE PRESIDENT: State your inquiry.
DELEGATE BURDETTE: My inquiry
is not parliamentary, but merely to dis-
cover which provisions in law amplify this
language here to take care of a situation
|
in which the problem is not of assuring
appearance, but of insuring that an ex-
traordinarily dangerous criminal does not
continue to commit similar crimes.
THE PRESIDENT: I will permit you to
put the question to Delegate Grant if we
find out first if other delegates desire to
speak.
Do any other delegates desire to speak
in opposition?
Delegate Fox, do you desire to speak in
favor?
DELEGATE FOX: Very, very briefly,
sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Proceed.
DELEGATE FOX: I am most reluctant
to disagree with Judge Child because there
is no one in this Convention for whom I
have more respect and more admiration.
When Dale Adkins and I get into a dispute
back down home, we get Judge Child to
arbitrate. I have to remind him and remind
all the delegates that in Wicomico, Wor-
cester, and Somerset Counties there is no
way to get bail. There is no bail bondsman.
There is a fly-by-night man that some-
times, if you can catch him and pay him
some money, will be able to bail you out,
but there is not any bail bond service.
Unless the people who have got the key
realize they have an obligation to turn the
man out if they possibly can, rather than
to keep him if they possibly can, all the
provisions we have in the present law with
regard to bail really do not do much good.
If you get locked up on Friday night and
you have not got the wherewithal, it may
be very well Monday or Tuesday. This hap-
pens to youngsters very frequently who go
to Ocean City during the summer time.
They are charged with such serious of-
fenses as drinking beer. They will spend
the weekend in jail and their parents will
have to drive down from Baltimore to get
them bailed out or what is worse, they will
call me at two o'clock in the morning and
get me to ride over to Ocean City to get
them bailed out. I rise in support of the
amendment.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Grant, will
you yield to a question by Delegate Bur-
dette?
DELEGATE GRANT: Yes.
DELEGATE BURDETTE: If you have
not heard the question, I will restate it.
DELEGATE GRANT: Please restate it.
|