Brangan v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-143-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-12232 JAHMAL BRANGAN vs. COMMONWEALTH. Suffolk. May 2, 2017. – August 25, 2017. Present: Gants, C.J., Hines, Gaziano, Lowy, Budd, & Cypher, JJ.[1] Bail. Indigent. Due Process of Law, Pretrial detainees. Civil action commenced in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on February 26, 2016. The case was heard by Lenk, J. Merritt Schnipper for the petitioner. Amal Bala, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Shira Diner & Ryan M. Schiff, for Committee for Public Counsel Services, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. HINES, J. The practice of releasing a defendant on bail prior to trial has been part of Massachusetts law since its beginnings as a colony. See Commonwealth v. Baker, 343 Mass. 162, 165 (1961). The Body of Liberties (1641), the oldest known compilation of Massachusetts Colonial law, provided that: “18. No mans person shall be restrained or imprisoned by any Authority whatsoever, before the law hath sentenced him thereto, If he can put in sufficient securitie, bayle or mainprise, for his appearance, and good behaviour in the meane time, unlesse it be in Crimes Capital, and Contempts in open Court, and in such cases where some expresse act of Court doth allow it.” See Baker, supra. This statement, although nearly four centuries old, summarizes well the dual functions of bail. On the one hand, release on bail preserves the liberty of the accused until he or she has been afforded the full measure of due process in a criminal trial. “This traditional right to freedom before conviction permits the unhampered preparation of a defense, and serves to prevent the infliction of punishment prior to conviction. . . . Unless this right to bail before trial is preserved, the presumption of innocence, secured only after centuries of struggle, would lose its meaning” (citation omitted). Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1, 4 (1951).[2] On the other hand, the giving of security serves to assure that the defendant will appear in court when called to do so. “The right to release before trial is conditioned upon the accused’s giving adequate assurance that he will stand trial and submit to sentence if found guilty.” Id. Where, as in this case, the defendant is unable to give the necessary security for his appearance at […]