The Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill on Tuesday that strengthened bail requirements.
HB 1719 “removes the defendant’s financial condition as a consideration for the magistrate in determining the amount of bail necessary to reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant at trial and protect the safety of the public.”
The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee (R) for a signature.
State Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis) sponsored the legislation.
“There is a revolving door of criminals going in and out of our judicial system,” Gillespie said. “Time and again, we have seen the tragic consequences of allowing people back into the community based on their ability to pay. We must instead focus on the danger that person poses to the community. This bill is an important step in making Memphis and all of Tennessee safer.”
Other bail considerations, such as length of residence, family ties, employment status, prior criminal record, the nature of the offense, and probability of conviction, will still be considered when determining bail.
Elected state Democrats criticized the bill.
“Rep. John Gillespie just passed one of most discriminatory bills of 2024 leg session,” said State Representative John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville). “Expressly prohibiting consideration of financial condition when setting bail is discriminatory and adverse to equal access to justice.”
State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), who is losing by double digits in her current U.S. Senate race against Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), called the bill “unconstitutional” but did not specify how.
Memphis, in particular, has faced a recent surge of violent crime and had the highest murder rate of any large city in the United States in 2023.
State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) called for considering the defendant’s ability to pay bond to be eliminated earlier this year on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“When you allow lawlessness to permeate a community the way it has in Memphis, witnesses are afraid to come forward,” he said on the show in February. “Victims are afraid to come forward for fear of retribution, which when they don’t come forward, cases get dismissed and they continue with the lawlessness. So it just becomes a self fulfilling prophecy there. And we have to change our bail laws so that people who are committing crimes are sitting in jail rather than being out on the streets.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
