Was the denial of bail excessive?
Under Massachusetts law, the purpose of setting bail is to "reasonably assure the appearance of the person before the court" and to ensure that the person "will not endanger the safety of any other person or the community." State troopers lawfully entered an apartment to arrest Querubin and another. They fled. The police found twenty-two kilograms of seventy-nine per cent pure cocaine in the apartment with a street value of approximately $ 2.2 million. Querubin was indicted and captures by border patrol agents at Las Cruces, New Mexico, as he attempted to flee into Mexico. At a bail hearing, Querubin argued the weaknesses in the Commonwealth's case, the lack of any connection between him and the apartment, his lack of a criminal record, and his claimed right to political asylum (his brother had been granted political asylum). The judge ordered that Querubin be detained without bail pending trial.
What will be an ideal response?
No
There is no absolute right to bail; it can be denied in capital cases. The bail statute is not vague—it codifies the well known factors to be considered by a judge exercising inherent common law authority to grant or deny bail. "The essential purpose of bail is to secure the presence of a defendant at trial to ensure that, if the defendant is guilty, justice will be served." Further, the "ability to secure a defendant's presence at trial is of fundamental importance to the basic functioning of the judiciary, without which justice cannot be properly administered. . . . A judge in the Superior Court has the inherent authority to deny a defendant's motion for admittance to bail where bail will not reasonably assure the defendant's appearance before the court." Deciding whether to withhold bail involves "determinations of fact and the exercise of sound, practical judgment, and common sense." In most cases the facts to be determined at a bail hearing are "undisputed, a matter of public record, [and] readily explained" which involve "the application of factors . . . that are familiar, straightforward, and relatively simple." There was no abuse of discretion by the judge in this case.
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