AUSTIN, TX – For years, the Texas Republican lawmakers have wanted to amend the state Constitution to keep more defendants behind bars during their pretrial and getting the bipartisan support has been difficult, until now.
According to the Texas Tribune, the push to stiffen the state’s bail laws has been largely spearheaded by Governor Greg Abbott, who has named the issue an emergency item for three straight sessions. GOP leaders see the issue as a matter of life and death, arguing that the stricter bail laws are needed to curb violent crime by those who are out on bond.
The issue, however, has repeatedly stalled in the House, thwarted by Democrats who have killed GOP bail measures by running out the clock or denying the two-thirds support needed from both chambers to put a constitutional amendment before voters. Critics and progressive Democrat lawmakers view the bail crackdown as an infringement of the civil liberties of defendants who are legally presumed innocent.
Abbott recently pained the measure as one of the most important pieces of legislation this session. He said, “There are thousands of bills that are working their way through the Legislature. None of them have the deadly consequences as much as this legislation — to amend the Constitution to keep these deadly, dangerous, violent criminals off the streets.”
Lawmakers are negotiating a package that could win support from all 88 House Republicans and at least 12 Democrats, the minimum needed to reach two-thirds of the 150-member House.
The measure will reportedly mirror past proposals that would have given judges the option to deny bail in a wider array of violent offenses, but the House’s lead negotiator said that for some cases, the measure could go even further by requiring judges to withhold bail, rather than giving them the discretion to do so.
Under the current state Constitution amendment, defendants who are legally presumed innocent are largely guaranteed the right to pretrial release, except in limited circumstances such as when someone is charged with capital murder. Automatically denying bail is a new proposal that has not appeared in any legislative drafts this session.
It was a recent demand of Abbott’s, who abruptly called for the more far-reaching standard during his stop in Houston. In a statement on Tuesday, May 6th, Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo), chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee said, “We’re close to an agreement. We’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve narrowed a lot of the issues down.”
Some of the House Democrats are cautiously on board. Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said that he anticipates reaching a “reasonable” agreement lacking the “most extreme” proposals. He said, “It’s something our communities have been asking for for a while. I’m expecting an agreement that probably the bulk of the body will vote for.”
Nikki Pressley, Texas state director of Right on Crime at the Texas Public Policy Foundation said, “There’s some added pressure on the Democrats to get it done, just simply because this is a really big problem, and it’s a bipartisan issue. People feel unsafe, and we’re seeing stories all the time, over and over, of people getting out on bond and then seriously hurting someone.”
In pushing for the bail provisions, Abbott has called out several Harris County Democrats by name, highlighting violent crimes in their districts that were allegedly committed by people out on bond. An Abbott spokesperson reiterated that the governor was pushing to automatically deny bail in certain cases to rein in “activist judges” setting “weak bail.”
Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement, “Governor Abbott will work with the Legislature to require judges deny bail to criminals charged with capital murder and other heinous violent crimes. Democrats must choose — support the safety of the citizens they represent, or the criminals who kill them.”
