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Show Setting bail Dear Editor, In answer to Mr. Crowl's denunciation denuncia-tion of Judge Hammond's setting of bail for Circuit Court. I get the impression that Mr. Crowl figures bail is almost the same as a fine. In the first place bail is a procedure where the court sets a figure to assure that the charged person will apear in court. If one will appear on his own volition there should be no reason for bail. On those questionable the bail only needs to be large enough to assure appearance in court. Excessive bail will only result in the victim being held in jail at the tax payers expense. I question Mr. Crowl's assertion that numerable cases of people fail to appear ap-pear because two small bail was levied. I think one can go over case histories and find more cases where the arrested has been pining in jail because the bail was too high. Now let's get the idea of writing the judge expressing indignation for setting bail, which Mr. Crowl figures is too small. The law is not a popularity contest. con-test. It is based on the assumption that we should turn away ten guilty people rather than convict one innocent person. per-son. Further if popularity were the criteria Leopold and Loeb would have been hung from the nearest lamp post rather than be brought to trial. Rather than complain at Circuit Court's handling of bail we should look at excessive bail levied on "rummord charges" where a victim of traffic tickets figures he is being charged with an act he did not committ but pays the bail rather than pay the excessive costs for fighting the case. All one needs to do is wait in line at the Circuit Court to find that 90 percent of the people pay the bail figuring they are getting "ripped off". Mr. Crowl, bail is not a fine it is only a fund assessed to assure the charged, appearance in court. The Circuit Court or any pt,her court has no right to use bail in iue of a fine or as a penalty. WENDALL K. NASH |