Legal expert Alan Dershowitz argued Thursday that monetary requirements to post bail are far less effective than allowing a judge to decide whether someone is an imminent threat.
Appearing on Newsmax's "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," the Harvard Law professor emeritus said he supported Illinois' decision to eliminate cash bail and has been backing efforts to curb it for years.
"I have been advocating the abolition of monetary bail since, I think, 1966," Dershowitz said, adding, "It lets too many dangerous people out who have the money, and it keeps too many nondangerous people who would never flee in jail for lacking the money.
"The ability to pay money has little relationship to the dangers posed that pre-trial detention is supposed to deal with," he added.
His comments follow the Illinois Supreme Court upheld on Tuesday a 2021 law reforming the criminal justice system that was passed months after demonstrations surrounding the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.
While judges can no longer impose cash bail conditions, they are still permitted to detain defendants if there exists reason to believe they pose a risk of committing more offenses or fleeing prosecution.
"When you have somebody who's been mugging people on the street, no matter how much money he has or she has, they ought to be confined pending trial," Dershowitz contended.
"Trial ought to be very, very quick," he continued. "And it ought to be based on valid statistical evidence and also a preliminary hearing to determine that it's very, very likely the person has, in fact, committed the crime."
He further pointed to cases where individuals are jailed for over a year before being proven innocent.
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