Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) is vowing to “fight” for a Democrat-approved law that is set to abolish bail statewide, freeing many violent crime suspects from jail before trial, after the state’s Supreme Court stalled the measure.
This week, the Illinois Supreme Court halted the bail abolishment law for the time being after a lower court ruled that the law violated the state’s constitution.
In response, Pritzker said he would continue fighting to get the law through the courts and finally implement it across Illinois to more easily free criminal suspects from jail while they await trial.
“Obviously, I signed the law, and the legislators voted for it, and there is a common and comfortable belief that it is constitutional,” Pritzker said during an event on Wednesday:
The court system will make a ruling on it through the Supreme Court sometime in the next few months. I am disappointed that there has been a delay in its implementation. [Emphasis added]
…
The whole purpose here is fairness, and I think we will continue to fight for that. Those of us who believe in this know that there is even more to do, but I am comfortable and confident that this is constitutional. [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News has chronicled, the law was supposed to take effect on January 1 and would have forced local counties to free from jail criminal suspects accused of a number of crimes — including violent crimes.
In Winnebago County, Illinois, the district attorney estimates that about 400 criminal suspects would be freed from jail despite their being accused of violent crimes. Likewise, in Will County, Illinois, about 640 criminal suspects would be freed from jail, including 60 accused of murder.
The law abolishes bail hearings for suspects accused of second-degree murder, drug-induced homicide, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, aggravated battery, nearly all drug offenses, aggravated drunk driving, aggravated fleeing, arson, intimidation, and threatening a public official, among others, though a judge could individually rule that a suspect be held in jail ahead of trial.
Similar laws, though not fully abolishing cash bail, have been implemented in states like New York and have coincided with surges in violent crime. Newly released New York Police Department data revealed that suspects freed from jail thanks to the “No Bail” law were rearrested for other crimes at rapid rates.
Ten suspects, for instance, have been arrested nearly 500 times in the last couple of years and most remain released from jail without bail.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.