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Gov. Greg Abbott signs package to restrict bail for violent offenders, urges voters to approve constitutional amendment
Summary
In Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott signed bills aimed at limiting pretrial release for violent defendants, giving prosecutors immediate appeal rights for bond decisions, barring certain magistrates from setting high-risk bonds and restricting taxpayer-funded bail. Officials urged voters to pass the related constitutional amendment, SJR 5, in November.
HOUSTON — Governor Greg Abbott signed a set of criminal-justice measures in Houston that state leaders said will tighten pretrial release for violent defendants and give prosecutors new tools to keep high-risk people behind bars.
The measures — which officials named at the event as Senate Bill 9, Senate Bill 40, House Bill 75 and Senate Joint Resolution 5 (SJR 5) — were described by Abbott and advocacy groups as responses to what they called a broken bail system in which repeat violent offenders were released and later committed new crimes. "This is a day of reckoning," Rania Mankarios, CEO of Crime Stoppers of Houston, said at the bill-signing event.
Abbott said judges will no longer be able to grant bail in violent cases when a prosecutor demonstrates the defendant is a flight risk and a danger, and that judges who do release violent defendants must explain their…
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