Professor Gary Pieples, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, has joined more than 100 law professors from every law school in New York in opposition to Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed changes to the current bail reform law.
In the Daily Orange, Pieples said Hochul’s plan would regress to a time when judges had complete discretion, before the 1960s when lawmakers began to revise the law. He emphasized in line with the letter that the sole legal purpose of bail is to ensure the defendant returns to court, and this must remain the standard for evaluation.
“None of these people have been convicted, and they’re being accused of something. Nobody’s determined whether they’ve done it, and the system is based on the belief that all of these folks are innocent until the government can prove otherwise,” Pieples said. “Partly, it’s just undoing that general idea that ‘oh, well, you’re dangerous and we’re going to put you in jail because of that.’”