{"id":1637,"date":"2023-03-29T00:05:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T00:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=1637"},"modified":"2023-03-29T00:09:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T00:09:14","slug":"eric-toney-vote-yes-on-both-bail-amendments-to-protect-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=1637","title":{"rendered":"Eric Toney: Vote \u2018Yes\u2019 on Both Bail Amendments to Protect the Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/wisconsin-bail-amendments-yes-vote\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI ask that you join me in voting \u201cYes\u201d to both constitutional amendment questions\u201d \u2013 DA Eric Toney, on the Wisconsin bail amendments.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The April 4 election includes two binding constitutional amendment questions concerning bail that would amend section 8 (2) of article I of the Wisconsin Constitution.<\/p>\n

The first ballot question seeks to amend the type of harm a judge may consider when
\nordering non-monetary bail conditions to protect the community. The second ballot
\nquestion seeks to expand criteria judges may consider when ordering cash bail.<\/p>\n

A \u201cYes\u201d vote to the first ballot amendment modifies the harm judges may consider to
\nprotect the community from a defendant when imposing non-monetary bail conditions
\nfrom \u201cserious bodily harm\u201d to \u201cserious harm.\u201d Deleting the word \u201cbodily\u201d expands
\ncommunity protection beyond physical harm to also include emotional harm, property
\ndamage, and other harm.<\/p>\n

\"eric
Eric toney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A \u201cYes\u201d vote to the second ballot amendment broadens what judges may consider when
\nordering cash bail, which is currently limited only to assuring a defendant\u2019s appearance
\nin court. The amendment\u2019s expanded cash bail criteria are: 1) the seriousness of the
\noffense charged, 2) the previous criminal record of the accused, 3) the probability the
\naccused will appear in court, 4) the need to protect the public from serious harm, or 5)
\nprevent intimidation of witnesses.<\/p>\n

Many prosecutors and judges already consider the five criteria in ballot question two
\nregarding cash bail, believing they influence a defendant\u2019s likelihood of appearing for
\ncourt. However, some judges will not consider those factors because they don\u2019t believe
\nthe Constitution allows it. This causes cash bond to be applied differently among judges
\nwith some criminals committing new crimes while on bond and a judge, that fails to
\nconsider the additional criteria, ordering low cash bond or a signature bond in the new
\ncriminal case.<\/p>\n

Supporting both ballot amendment questions will improve our bail system and ensure
\njudges uniformly apply cash bail standards to protect us from dangerous criminals, thus
\nmaking Wisconsin safer. There are also statutory protections for defendants which
\ninclude allowing bond modification motions and a speedy trial. If a speedy trial demand
\nis not met the general remedy is to release the defendant from cash bail.<\/p>\n

I ask that you join me in voting \u201cYes\u201d to both constitutional amendment questions. By
\ndoing so you\u2019ll join the bi-partisan Wisconsin District Attorneys\u2019 Association and both
\ncandidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in supporting these amendments.<\/p>\n

Eric Toney is President of the Wisconsin District Attorneys\u2019 Association and Fond du
\nLac County District Attorney.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/wisconsin-bail-amendments-yes-vote\/ \u201cI ask that you join me in voting \u201cYes\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":1639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}