That pesky Constitution

Well, today was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back. LPD was thoroughly trashed in the letters to the editor appearing in today's Lincoln Journal Star, and on some of the radio talk shows all week. It seems like many people are blaming the police for the fact that a 17 year old young man continues to just get tickets for driving without a license, despite the fact that he was recently involved in a collision that killed a young passenger in his car.

Listen closely: it's not the police. We don't make the laws, set the bail, decide the cases, or determine the sentences. It's a good thing. We'd need a much bigger jail.

The police cannot put 17 year olds in jail, and we can't put anyone in the youth detention center or in jail for an offense that is not punishable by imprisonment. The Lincoln Municipal Ordinance violation for driving without a license does not carry a potential penalty of imprisonment--just a fine. So he can't go to jail for that, no matter how many times he is cited. That's not our choice, it's the law.

Now, when he was cited for Manslaughter, that's another matter. Manslaughter can be punished by up to 10 years in prison, so he could have been lodged in the Youth Detention Center by the arresting officer. But the prosecuting attorney asked us to cite him, instead. He appeared in court a few days later, and the judge set bail in the amount of $25,000 for his continued release. The law in Nebraska requires defendant's to post only 10% of the bail--in this case, $2,500. The defendant was able to do so promptly, and was out before the ink was dry on the reports.

Although these weren't decisions left up to the police, I will stick up for both the prosecutor and the judge in this case. The prosecutor realized that this young man had a serious injury, beyond the capabilities of the Youth Detention Center. Had he been lodged there, he likely would have ended up in the hospital, and the taxpayers would then be obligated to pay the cost of his care. Given the fact that he was likely to receive a low bail within one or two days anyway, I think the prosecutor's request that he be cited rather than lodged was a good call.

Now, the judge. The eighth amendment of the Constitution of the United States prohibits excessive bail. The purpose of bail is to assure the appearance of the defendant at trail--not to deprive him of his liberty before he has been convicted of the offense. Since this defendant is a lifelong Lincoln resident, it's pretty hard to argue that a million dollar bond is needed to assure that he will return for court.

It was our Founding Fathers who decided that excessive bail should be prohibited, and that our system of justice ought to have as one of it's fundamental pillars a concept that people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Although I strongly agree that our justice system ought to be set up to protect the innocent, I, too, get frustrated by the result from time to time. But in a free society, justice must await a fair trial.