The House Judiciary Committee heard HB 1328 authored by Rep. Porter on bail issues. The bill amends current law to remove the requirement that the Indiana pretrial risk assessment system shall be designed to assess an arrestee’s likelihood of committing a new criminal offense, shifts the burden of proof by providing that murder is not bailable if the State proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the proof is evident or the presumption strong, and removes the requirement that a judge must consider a defendant’s criminal or juvenile record when considering risk for nonappearance.
An amendment offered by Rep. Young removed all language with the exception of the burden of proof for bail in murder cases. Larry Landis, Executive Director of the Public Defender Council, and David Powell, Executive Director, Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council testified in support of the amended bill. The amended bill passed 9-0.
Read the bill at https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2018/bills/house/1328