DOVER, Del. (AP)- Delaware lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to legislation requiring more people charged with serious crimes to pay cash bail in order to be released from custody pending trial.
The legislation was approved on a 32-8 vote in the House and cleared the Senate 19-to-2 less than half an hour later.
The Senate had passed the bill earlier this month but needed to approve a House amendment sought by Republican lawmakers. The amendment clarifies that when a court sets bail in a case involving any of the 38 categories of offenses enumerated in the bill, the defendant will be required to relinquish, but not forfeit, any firearms in his or her possession.
The bill establishes secured cash bail as the baseline to be used by judges in determining pretrial release conditions for defendants charged with any the specified offenses. Those offenses include the most serious violent felonies, as well as certain gun crimes, sex crimes involving children and certain domestic violence offenses.
Under current law, the presumption of cash bail as the standard for pretrial bond conditions applies only to defendants charged with committing violent felonies involving firearms, and for defendants charged with committing violent felonies while on a probation or pretrial release for a previous criminal charge.
The bill has received overwhelming support from lawmakers of both parties, even as Democratic lawmakers seek to end Delaware’s reliance on cash bail through passage of a constitutional amendment. The amendment would allow bail to be withheld entirely for cases involving the same offenses listed in the legislation. Currently, the Delaware constitution allows bail to be withheld only for capital crimes, which are crimes punishable by death. Delaware’s death penalty was abolished several years ago, however.
Supporters of the cash bail legislation say it is an effort to protect the public from dangerous criminals being released back to the streets while awaiting trial.
Opponents, including several newly elected progressive Democrats, have said cash bail requirements disproportionately affect low-income and minority Democrats, and that the legislation is a step backward in Delaware’s bail reform efforts.
While establishing cash bail as the presumptive bond for specified offenses, the bill gives judges discretion to conduct bail review hearings and to modify bail conditions as they see fit.
The legislation also requires the state Criminal Justice Council to include information about cases and the racial impact when courts set bail subject to the provisions in the bill.