Local state House Representatives Bryan Spencer and Jeff Porter are among more than 80 legislators calling for the Missouri Supreme Court to reverse rules limiting the use of monetary bail for people …
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Local state House Representatives Bryan Spencer and Jeff Porter are among more than 80 legislators calling for the Missouri Supreme Court to reverse rules limiting the use of monetary bail for people accused of a crime.
The Supreme Court in 2019 directed judges across the state to use the least restrictive methods necessary to get criminal defendants to show up for their court dates. That includes using monetary bail only as a last resort.
The rules were put in place so criminal defendants would be treated equally, regardless of how much money they have.
But in a letter sent to the Supreme Court last week, state representatives said the rules aren’t working as intended, and have placed a significant burden on lower courts and allow suspects to re-offend while awaiting trial.
Rep. Bryan Spencer said the Supreme Court stepped out of its role when it announced the new bail rules.
“The Supreme Court is starting to legislate from the bench, and that’s not their job,” Spencer said. “We’ve had an example of someone who robbed a bank, got let out, then robbed another bank.”
The letter to the Supreme Court calls on the judges to rescind the new bail rules and work with the Legislature on a more narrow set of reforms.
Spencer said he thinks monetary bail is an important tool to ensure criminal defendants have a stake in showing up to court and not re-offending. Otherwise, he said jails are becoming a revolving door for repeat offenders to continually be released.
Spencer said he doesn’t expect the Supreme Court to change course, but that the letter puts them on notice that the Legislature will take action if something doesn’t change.
Rep. Jeff Porter, another signer of the letter, said Legislators have expressed clear support for rescinding the bail changes.
“We need to reverse the rules to make sure they go through the proper process,” Porter said. “The main objective is to keep people in long enough to go through the (judicial) process.”
Porter said the letter was issued as a courtesy to the Supreme Court. He doesn’t expect the House to take any additional action on the bail rules during this legislative session.
