New York’s law eliminating bail for crimes deemed “non-violent” allowed an accused assailant to be arrested three times in one day because police were forced to continue releasing him after the arrests.
Scott Nolan, who has a 50-page long criminal record, was arrested three times over the span of just seven hours as police officers in Troy, New York, had to continuously free him from their custody due to a bail reform law passed by statewide Democrats and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
The crimes for which bail has been eliminated in New York include second-degree manslaughter, aggravated vehicular assault, third-degree assault, promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child, criminally negligent homicide, or aggravated vehicular homicide.
According to the Troy Police Department, Nolan was arrested early in the morning and charged with shoplifting. Rather than keeping him in jail on bail, he was released with a note to appear in court at a later date for the charge.
Then, less than six hours later, Nolan was arrested for allegedly assaulting a man. Troy police officers arrested him and freed him again. About two hours later, Nolan was arrested for the third time in seven hours for allegedly hitting a person with a brick.
Nolan was charged with second-degree attempted assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Only the second-degree attempted assault charge is keeping the accused criminal in jail, as the bail reform law frees suspects accused of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Aside from eliminating bail for accused criminals considered to be “non-violent,” the law allows suspects to inspect their own crime scenes with their attorneys and mandates that the prosecution hand over all the names of witnesses set to testify against a defendant within two weeks of their arrest.
That specific provision has already been blamed for the murder of a 36-year-old witness who was expected to testify against MS-13 gang members in a criminal trial. The murder occurred after the witness’s name was handed over to attorneys representing the accused.
In January, a convicted bank robber in upstate New York was released from jail after he allegedly robbed a bank for the fourth time. The law may allow the bank robber to return to the alleged scene of the crime with his defense attorney to gather their own evidence.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.