Candidate Donald Koch: On crime and punishment
October 3, 2024 | By Donald Koch
We hear about it almost every day. The police have arrested someone and charged that person with a crime.
Often, for smaller offenses, the person is simply cited and released. Other times for more serious violations, the person is lodged in jail, pending arraignment. Upon arraignment, the judge releases the accused on his or her own recognizance after imposing conditions of release. Not long afterwards, that same individual is arrested again, either for a new crime or for violation of the conditions of release, and is promptly released again by the court under the condition they do not violate their conditions, which they have already violated.
The revolving doors of the justice system have the citizens and the police frustrated, and I would bet that the judges don’t like it much better, but they are constrained by the law—namely, the Vermont Constitution.
Chapter 2 Section 40 of Vermont’s Constitution reads, in relevant part:
Excessive bail shall not be exacted for bailable offences. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except as follows:
A person accused of an offense punishable by death or life imprisonment may be held without bail when the evidence of guilt is great.
A person accused of a felony, an element of which involves an act of violence against another person may be held without bail when the evidence of guilt is great and the court finds, based upon clear and convincing evidence, that the person’s release poses a substantial threat of physical violence to any person and that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably prevent the physical violence. A person held without bail prior to trial under this paragraph shall be entitled to review de novo by a single justice of the Supreme Court forthwith.
A person awaiting sentence, or sentenced pending appeal, may be held without bail for any offense.
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If the trial is not commenced within 60 days and the delay is not attributable to the defense, the court shall immediately schedule a bail hearing and shall set bail for the person.
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For many years, the courts have held that the sole purpose of bail – beyond what is written in the Constitution – is to ensure someone’s appearance in court. Judges are duty bound to release defendants who have repeatedly violated their conditions, or who have fled from the police, or have provided false information, which I believe are all signs that they might not show up for their court hearing.
Judges must also release those who commit misdemeanor after misdemeanor or non-violent felonies because the facts of the situation do not comply with paragraph [2] quoted above. Oftentimes they in fact do not show up and an arrest warrant is issued. Then the police arrest the person and bring them before the judge, where they are again set free.
Something needs to change
We need to amend the Constitution to provide for withholding bail for repeat offenders and for those who have shown that conditions will not be honored, even when they are not accused of a violent crime.
We also need to provide full funding and support our law enforcement agencies and allow them to use all standard methods available to them – subject to fair and impartial policing policies – to perform their jobs effectively.
We need to embrace a “broken windows” approach to law enforcement, where enforcing smaller minor violations of the law often helps discover larger crimes. One need look no further than Chittenden County where the States Attorney Sarah George will not bring any charges against someone whom she determines was arrested as a result of a “pretextual stop” – a traffic stop for something minor such as a burned-out taillight, which is a valid stop and a chargeable offense. But in the process of investigating that offense and issuing the ticket, the officer is given probable cause that something bigger is going on, leading to an arrest and a criminal complaint. Some prosecutors, however, including George, simply dismiss the charges.
We need to pass a law that protects officers’ ability to do their jobs and guarantees qualified immunity for our law enforcement officers.
We also need to provide adequate funding and support to enable the courts to ensure that cases are processed in a timely manner. If the Constitution requires that cases be brought to trial in 60 days, is that mere empty language, or do we mean it? We need to remember that, “Justice delayed is justice denied,” and that means justice for the victim as well as the offender.
Some of these changes will likely require amendments to the Constitution, which by law cannot be proposed until 2027. However, work on these proposals can start before then, and if it is going to happen, we need change in the legislature now!
Our current legislators led by the Democrats have neglected to deal with these issues for many years and the problems are only getting worse.
I ask you to give change a chance, by voting for me on Nov. 5.
Barre resident Donald Koch is a Republican candidate for the Washington Vermont state Senate district. Campaign website is here. Email: KochforVermont@gmail.com