Jackson Free Press

City Council President Frank Bluntson was certainly not alone in his frustration at last week's council meeting. Venting about the Dec. 11 arrest of a 16-year-old suspect in connection with an early-morning burglary and armed robbery in south Jackson, Bluntson demanded to know why the suspect was out on bond the day of the crime, having been charged in other robberies this summer.

"My understanding is that he was arrested in July, and the bond was set at $150,000," Bluntson said. "How could a 16-year-old boy make a bond (of) that amount? First of all, he's not in school. Next, he doesn't have a regular job."

Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith told Bluntson that retiring County Court Judge William Barnett set the suspect's bail but "probably didn't anticipate" his meeting the 10 percent bond fee--in this case $15,000--that most bail-bonding agencies require.

"If ... that 16-year-old boy can make that $150,000 bond without being in school or even having a job, a light ought to go off in your head," Bluntson said. "(You should) say: 'Wait a minute. Something must be going on. Why am I releasing this person?' "

Bluntson's anger that Hinds County released a suspected repeat offender is understandable, but the young suspect's first bail was a right and a necessity, defense attorney Matt Eichelberger said. The state and federal constitutions both recognize a right to bail.

"Bail is the recognition that people are innocent until proven guilty," Eichelberger said. "And people aren't proven guilty unless they're tried and convicted, or they plead guilty. None of those things happen within three months on felony charges."

The sheer volume of cases that the district attorney's office handles makes filing indictments within three months of an arrest a challenge, he conceded.

Smith maintained that Barnett, who is retiring at the end of this year and handled preliminary hearings for all criminal cases in county court, set "significantly low" bail amounts for some violent and habitual offenders. Eichelberger disagreed.

"I thought he was very reasonable," Eichelberger said. "He didn't give away the farm; he didn't say, 'Here's a $10,000 bail on a murder case.' He wouldn't do that, but he also wouldn't give you $5 million bail, either."

Eichelberger, who served in the Hinds County Public Defender's office from 2007 to June of this year, said Barnett typically requires prosecutors to file an indictment within 90 days of a suspect's first court appearance. If prosecutors fail to meet that deadline, Barnett more often than not submits an order releasing the suspect on his own recognizance. The deadline is "a safeguard, to make sure that we're not just warehousing people," Eichelberger said.

Police arrested the 16-year-old suspect, whom other media outlets have named, in July following a series of armed robberies of homes. Though a minor, the teen appeared in Hinds County Court rather than youth court, because crimes involving a weapon automatically move to county court. Barnett set his bail at $150,000, and the teen went free Aug. 29 after posting bond--paying a fee to a bail-bonding agency that in turn promised to pay his full bail amount if he failed to appear in court. In November, the Hinds County district attorney's office indicted the suspect on 10 counts of armed robbery for the summer offenses. His original bond covered bail both before and after the indictment, which Eichelberger said was also standard practice.

As long as a defendant's indictment does not differ from the charges in his original arrest, the Hinds County Sheriff's Department will usually allow the suspect to pay a $25 service fee, colloquially known as a "turning-the-key fee," and leave on the same bond from his or her arrest.

A Jackson Municipal Court judge denied bail to the suspect, along with three other young men, in a Dec. 13 hearing following his most recent robbery arrest, however. The same section of the Mississippi Constitution that provides for bail also mandates that a judge revoke bail from anyone charged or suspected of committing a felony while out on bond.

Two days later, Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Malcolm Harrison denied the teen bail in his arraignment for the November indictment.

"I know that people are just clamoring for justice, and they want the streets clean," Eichelberger said. "I want them clean, too, but we don't just get to lock people away when they're accused of a crime. We have to let the process work."

Previous Comments

ID

161348

Comment

I think it is so ironic how black men were convicted with ease in Mississippi, for something as simple as looking in a white womans direction, prior to the civil rights movement and now you have a repeat offender they can't keep in jail, yet the Scott Sisters are still serving time for a crime they didn't even committ!? Yes indeed!

Author

Duan C.

Date

2010-12-23T08:16:59-06:00