Editorial: Resolution’s tighter reins on bail would serve public

October 6, 2010

The Spokesman-Review  This Halloween will be a grim one for the friends and loved ones of Timothy Brenton, the Seattle police officer who was shot to death on Oct. 31, 2009, in what has been described as an assassination. Within a month, four Lakewood police officers were gunned down in a Pierce County coffee shop, victims of a known criminal who was out on bail following rape charges.

Those tragic incidents, accompanied by a couple more in which law enforcement officers were shot at or wounded, weighed dramatically on lawmakers’ minds when they gathered in Olympia last January.

In such an atmosphere it would have been easy to overreact. We cautioned as much in an editorial published in December. Gov. Chris Gregoire, recognizing the emotional high tide, urged legislators to be thoughtful and deliberative.

And that’s what they did, producing a carefully designed constitutional amendment that might have spared the four Lakewood officers.

House Joint Resolution 4220 would allow judges to deny bail to certain suspects charged with felonies that could result in their spending life in prison. It is narrowly crafted and equipped with safeguards against abuse of constitutional rights.

Under the present Washington Constitution, the judge who released Maurice Clemmons pending trial had few options. Clemmons, who then shot the Lakewood police officers, would have had to be facing aggravated murder charges to be denied bail – even though he was charged with a violent crime and had recently had a 118-year sentence for armed robbery commuted in Arkansas. Bail is a mechanism designed to prevent a defendant from fleeing, not to punish him or her for crimes charged.

Although a flurry of bills were introduced in reaction to the spate of attacks on police, the one that emerged – HJR 4220 – was written with broad input from criminal- justice experts from both prosecution and defense orientations.

The ballot measure does a relatively simple thing. It broadens the circumstances under which judges can deny bail. If people charged with the most serious crimes are shown by “clear and convincing evidence” to pose a risk to public safety, they can be held without bail – as can happen in federal court. The decision is subject to immediate appeal.

Even though the original measure cleared the House by a comfortable 80-17 margin, sponsors fine-tuned it to address due-process concerns. In its final version, HJR 4220 passed 48-0 in the Senate and 92-4 in the House.

Human rights should not be taken lightly, but neither should public safety. HJR 4220 respects both, and it deserves voters’ approval.

Bail amendment a measured response to massacre
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Last updated: September 28th, 2010 12:18 AM (PDT)
This year’s general election ballot would most certainly be one question shorter had Maurice Clemmons not killed four Lakewood police officers in cold blood last fall.

On Nov. 2, voters will decide Engrossed Substitute House Joint Resolution 4220 which proposes to give judges greater leeway in denying bail to defendants.

The measure – also known as the Remember Lakewood Constitutional Amendment – probably would have never made it out of the Legislature but for the fact that Clemmons murdered cops six days after bailing out of jail.

But its origin in the crimes’ angry aftermath isn’t a strike against it. Much debate and compromise went into crafting the proposed amendment, which is far more measured than proponents’ opening offer.

Law enforcement and Gov. Chris Gregoire first wanted to give judges sweeping authority to deny bail whenever they deemed the public at risk – a standard similar to the federal system’s. The Legislature pushed back with proposals to target only those dangerous defendants charged with the most serious crimes.

Legislators and the governor met in the middle with a proposed amendment that would apply only to those defendants charged with the most serious felonies.

Sponsors estimate the amendment could affect roughly 4,100 of the more than 53,000 criminal defendants prosecuted each year in Washington state – but only if a judge first finds “clear and convincing evidence” that the defendant has a “propensity for violence” and poses a “substantial likelihood” of danger to the community.

Judges, in other words, would still be able to make factual judgments about individual cases. Such discretion is essential; the right to bail is part of the constitutionally guaranteed presumption of innocence and should not be revoked lightly.

Giving judges more leeway to deny bail actually helps preserve the right to bail. Without additional latitude to keep violent offenders with nothing to lose off the streets, judges will be inclined – especially in a post-Clemmons era – to set exorbitantly high bails.

Bail exists to allow a defendant a chance at freedom while awaiting trial. Intentionally setting it beyond reach makes a mockery of the current system and imposes a heavier burden on poor defendants.

As the law reads now, judges can deny bail only when a defendant is charged with a crime that might land him on death row. That’s a narrow standard – likely even narrower than Washington’s founders likely intended. The definition of a capital crime was more expansive when they were writing the state constitution.

Would greater judicial authority to deny bail have saved the lives of four Lakewood police officers? No one can say for sure. But the proposed amendment will, if passed, give judges better ability to balance public safety with defendants’ rights.

The News Tribune recommends a yes vote on Engrossed Substitute House Joint Resolution 4220.

 

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/09/28/v-printerfriendly/1359288/bail-amendment-a-measured-response.html#ixzz10xdsyCR8

Herald endorsement / ESHJR 4220

Vote in favor of public safety

The memories of the four Lakewood police officers who were gunned down last November will be part of this November’s election ballot.

Voters will decide whether to modify the state Constitution, giving judges slightly more leeway to deny bail to someone charged with a violent felony. Engrossed Substitute House Joint Resolution 4220, approved almost unanimously by the Legislature, would allow judges to deny bail for crimes in which the defendant could face a life prison sentence, and where release would pose “a substantial likelihood of danger to the community or any persons ...”

It takes a legislative supermajority to get a constitutional change on the ballot. (This one passed the House 92-4 and the Senate 48-0.) A simple majority of voters is required for final approval.

We recommend a yes vote on this narrow, sensible proposal.

It comes as a response to the unfathomable slayings committed last year by Maurice Clemmons, who days earlier had posted bail on charges that included rape of a child. Under Washington’s “three strikes” law, a conviction on that charge could have put him in prison for life.

Clemmons walked into a Lakewood (Pierce County) coffee shop on a Sunday morning as Lakewood officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens, Mark Renninger and Greg Richards were preparing for their shift, pulled a gun and murdered them. After two days on the run, Clemmons was shot and killed by a Seattle police officer.

This proposal, though, isn’t a knee-jerk response, as opponents suggest. It’s a recognition that in the delicate balance between protecting the rights of the accused and public safety, the law was weighted slightly too far away from the latter.

Currently, bail can only be denied in cases where the defendant could face the death penalty. The broader criteria in ESHJR 4220 would only apply where a life sentence is possible and there is a clear showing that the defendant has a propensity for violence.

Defendants’ rights would remain protected, including the right to a speedy trial and the presumption of innocence, hallmarks of our justice system.

Judges will retain latitude. Within the broadened rules, it will still be up to them to decide when denial of bail is appropriate.

The proposal was sponsored by state Rep. Mike Hope (R-Lake Stevens), a Seattle police officer. It has the backing of police and prosecutors statewide, including Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick and Prosecutor Mark Roe.

It deserves the support of voters, too — not as a tribute to the fallen officers, but as recognition that in cases involving the most dangerous offenders, judges need more discretion to protect the public.
© 2010The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA 

Published August 25, 2010

Amendment needed for our safety in light of Clemmons case
THE OLYMPIAN

The memory of the four slain Lakewood police officers looms large as general election voters are asked to approve a constitutional amendment that would allow judges to deny bail to criminal defendants facing a sentence of life in prison.

Engrossed Substitute House Joint Resolution 4220 allows judges could deny bail when they have clear and convincing evidence of a defendant’s propensity for violence that would likely endanger the lives of others.

The Olympian’s editorial board encourages voters to approve ESHJR 4220 at the Nov. 2, general election.

The Nov. 29 shooting of Lakewood officers Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards rocked this state to its core. Maurice Clemmons, 37, the man who walked into a Parkland coffee shop and shot the officers as they prepared for their shift, was on the run for two days before he was shot and killed by a Seattle police officer.

The investigations that followed uncovered multiple mistakes. At one point in his criminal career, for example, Clemmons was convicted of five felonies in Arkansas and was sentenced to 108 years in prison. But former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, let Clemmons out of jail after 11 years.

There were breakdowns in this state, too. When he arrived in Washington state while on parole in 2004, Clemmons was declared a “high risk to reoffend.” Yet that label and a subsequent arrest on eight potential felony charges, including rape, were — unbelievably — not sufficient to keep him behind bars. Just days before the Parkland shooting, Clemmons was allowed to post bail and walk out of the Pierce County Jail.

It was that breakdown in the system that lawmakers promised to fix with their constitutional amendment. The measure, approved 92-4 in the House and 48-0 in the Senate, would allow judges to deny bail when a suspect such as Clemmons is charged with a crime carrying a possible life sentence. The judge must make a finding that the defendant is considered a danger to the community.

The proposed constitutional amendment is a single sentence in length. It reads, “Bail may be denied for offenses punishable by the possibility of life in prison upon a showing by clear and convincing evidence of a propensity for violence that creates a substantial likelihood of danger to the community or any persons, subject to such limitations as shall be determined by the Legislature.”

Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens, sponsor of the amendment said, “This is the biggest, most important piece of law enforcement legislation in years.”

“I can think of no constitutional amendment in recent memory that has as great of a consequence as this one, ” said Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw.

While it’s true that this amendment passed the Legislature in response to the Lakewood killings, it’s not wise for voters to change the constitution because of one heinous crime. We don’t see this as a knee-jerk reaction, however. We see it as a well reasoned adjustment to the state constitution that acknowledges that judges need more discretion to keep a group of serious offenders in jail until their criminal case can be adjudicated.

The constitution says that bail can be denied only for defendants charged with a capital offense — in other words a murder where the criminal defendant may face the death penalty. Court rules even allow judges to release a murder defendant on bail if the judge finds no flight risk or a likelihood that the defendant will harm others.

Those who oppose passage of this constitutional amendment say an innocent person may be detained, and that the ballot proposal takes away the presumption of innocence.

It does not. Defendants facing life in prison can be denied bail only if the judge finds that they pose a clear danger to the community. The amendment allows judges to do what they do best — administer justice in a fair and impartial manner and protect the community.

Those who testified in support of this amendment to the constitution as it worked its way through the legislative process were right when they said giving judges more discretion to deny bail to dangerous criminals will protect the public and law enforcement officers.

It’s a tragedy that it took the slaughter of four Lakewood police officers to shed light on the fact that defendants like Maurice Clemmons deserve closer scrutiny and judges need more latitude in determining whether bail should be set.

Voters should support this constitutional amendment with a “yes” vote on Nov. 2.

 

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/25/v-print/1346399/amendment-needed-for-our-safety.html#ixzz0xet8QfLd

On Sunday, June 6th, the Seattle Times did a story detailing the issues with the current bail system in Washington State that allowed Maurice Clemmons to get out of jail. KUOW was down in Olympia too, Austin Jenkins filed a report that's also available as an audio file or podcast.