Texas House advances bail reform package while immigration-related proposal faces challenges
The Texas House on Monday and Tuesday advanced a package of legislation that would significantly change the way bail is administered in the state — but one key part of the package hit a snag.
The four pieces of legislation aim to make it easier to keep some defendants behind bars without bail as they await trial. Proponents say the bills will help keep Texans safe, citing instances in which defendants have allegedly committed violent crimes while out on bail for other charges. Opponents, however, have argued the bills are unjust and could further burden an already stressed pretrial system in Texas.
Senate Joint Resolution 5, a proposed constitutional amendment to give judges and magistrates wider discretion to deny bail for suspects charged with certain violent crimes like murder, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping and other serious offenses, easily advanced in the House on Monday. The Senate passed the legislation by a wide margin in February, and the House gave its nod to the resolution with a 133-8 vote. The Senate is expected to agree with House's changes to the resolution before Texas voters will have the opportunity to decide if it becomes law in a November election.
The House added safeguards to the bill that were absent in the Senate version, including an elevated legal standard for denying bail and the right to counsel in bail-setting hearings.
Another proposed constitutional amendment to keep defendants charged with a felony who are in the U.S. without legal authorization faced more scrutiny, however, and appeared to be on life support in the House on Tuesday afternoon.
If approved by the Legislature and Texas voters, Senate Joint Resolution 1, or "Jocelyn's Law," would keep persons without authority to be in the U.S. who are charged with certain felonies in jail until trial, barring judges and magistrates from setting bail in those cases.
The proposal is named for 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, whose body was found in June in a Houston bayou after being bound, sexually assaulted and strangled to death allegedly by two men believed to be in the U.S. illegally, according to authorities.
More: Denying bail? Why a Texas Senate panel approved reform plan to keep some defendants in jail
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the proposed constitutional amendment in February, but sponsors of the measure had not yet secured the constitutionally-required two-thirds majority of House members for the proposal to prevail by Tuesday afternoon. The lower chamber on Monday voted 88-50 to advance SJR 1 to a second vote, when it will require 100 supporters to head to Texas voters.
Currently, judges may only deny bail under specific circumstances prescribed by the Texas Constitution's Bill of Rights. Houston Republican Sen. Joan Huffman, who authored the legislation, has said the current constitutional requirement to offer bail to some defendants, even if a judge might find them to be dangerous, is a massive public safety risk.
Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, sponsored the bills in the House. He said during debate on SJR 1 that the bail reforms are a matter of life and death, calling the proposals some of the most important pieces of legislation he's voted on in his four decades in the House.
"Had we passed this constitutional amendment six years ago, there would be little boys and girls still alive today who were tragically killed," Smithee said Monday. "I can promise you this: If we adopt this amendment and the voters approve it, it will save innocent human life. Period."
While the bail reform proposals are generally noncontroversial among lawmakers, SJR 1 garnered some blowback from Democratic House members who said the measure is discriminatory and redundant with federal law, which requires the detention of non-U.S. nationals charged with certain crimes.
Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, cast a "reluctant" yes vote on the resolution. He said the narrower House version of the proposal constitutes good public policy, but he warned of the dangers of the "ugly" rhetoric that often surrounds immigration issues.
"From Twitter to town halls, the language around immigration is toxic, it's dehumanizing, and in some cases, it's nakedly racist," Moody said. "This type of scapegoating led to a mass murder in my hometown just a few years ago. Since then, that rhetoric has gotten worse, not better, and that makes it very hard to deal with just the policy on the paper."
Others, like Edinburg Democratic Rep. Terry Canales, argued the bill unfairly targets immigrants when its provisions should apply to all allegedly dangerous criminals, regardless of immigration status. He urged his colleagues to "vote no on this piece of crap."
Related legislation, Senate Bill 9 and SB 40, also passed the House on Tuesday. The Senate will need to approve the House's changes to those bills before they head to the governor's desk to become law.
SB 9 is a comprehensive bail reform bill that would change several things about the bail system, including increasing the amount of information available to judges when setting bail. It would also require judges who do not deny bail for certain violent charges to provide a written statement on the reasoning for their decision. SB 40 would prevent public money from being transferred to charitable bail organizations like the Bail Project.
Texas' top elected officials have called for lawmakers to fast-track bail reform legislation this session. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the three-term Republican who provides over the Senate, identified bail reform as one of his top legislative priorities, and Gov. Greg Abbott designated it an emergency item during his biennial State of the State address Feb. 2.
Abbott has consistently voiced support for the measures on social media, firing off a spate of tweets in recent weeks urging lawmakers to vote in favor of the legislation. The governor made an impromptu visit to the House just as it was finishing up its daily floor session late Monday afternoon, ostensibly to shore up support for bail reform and other legislative priorities.
Speaking briefly with reporters on the House floor, Abbott was clearly pleased with the passage of much of the bail reform package.
"We've been working hard on this for a long time," the governor said after chatting informally with several House members. "Too many people have been murdered because of the broken bail system that we've had.
"It needs to get done."
Staff writer John C. Moritz contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House OKs bail reform bills; immigration-related proposal stalls
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