WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor Ch. 247
the clerk shall accept no security without the oath or affirmation of the person offering
himself as security, that he or she is worth the amount of the bail in real or personal
estate, exclusive of his or her right to exemption, nor unless the clerk shall be satisfied of
the truth of such statement on oath or affirmation; and whenever a party is arrested on
indictment in any of those courts, and is imprisoned during the recess of the court, any
judge thereof, if it be a bailable case, may, by his order in writing, fix the bail and direct
the clerk to take the same, with security or securities, who shall justify on oath or
affirmation as hereinbefore provided, and no security shall be taken whom the clerk is not
fully satisfied to be worth the amount sworn to.
(b) (1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (c) of this section, every District
Court judge may set bond or bail or release on personal recognizance, bond, personal or
otherwise, commit to jail in default of bond, forfeit bonds upon failure of the defendant
to meet the conditions of the bond and exercise all of the powers of justices of the peace
under the Constitution of 1867.
(2) In the District Court, in all criminal or traffic violations for which bond
has been set, a defendant or a private surety acting in his behalf may post the bond by
executing it in the full penalty amount and by depositing with the clerk of the court or a
commissioner a sum of money equal to 10% of the penalty amount or $25, whichever is
greater. A judge may increase the percentage of cash surety required in a particular case
but in no event shall a cash deposit be less than $25. This paragraph does not apply if the
defendant has been arrested for failure to appear in court or for contempt of court.
(3) Upon depositing the sum provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection
and executing the recognizance, the defendant shall be released from custody subject to
the conditions of the bail bond. When all conditions of the bond have been performed
without default and the defendant has been discharged from all obligations in the cause
for which the recognizance was posted, the clerk of the court shall return the amount
deposited to the person or private surety who first deposited it.
(4) If the defendant fails to perform any or all of the conditions of the bail
bond, it shall be forfeited; and in the event of forfeiture, the liability of the bond shall
extend to the full amount of the bond set and the amount previously posted as a deposit
shall be applied to reduce the liability incurred by the forfeiture.
(c) Any person charged with an offense hereinafter enumerated committed
during the time that person had been released on bail or his own recognizance for
committing an offense hereinafter enumerated, is ineligible to give bail or be released on
recognizance on the subsequent charge, until all prior charges hereunder have finally
been determined by the courts. But a person charged with a subsequent crime hereinafter
sot forth, may rebut his ineligibility for release on bail before determination of the prior
charge. If, after consideration of the matters presented in rebuttal, the court hearing the
application for bail is persuaded that the applicant would not pose a danger to any other
person or to the community, and would appear at the time sot for trial, the court may
allow release ponding trial on suitable bail and on such other conditions as will reasonably
assure that the person charged will not flee. For the purposes of this subsection, court
does not mean District Court commissioners and the offenses are those specified in the
following sections of Article 27 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1967 Repl. Vol.) as
they may be amended from time to time:
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