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Bail Bonds and Fugitive Recovery
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Taylor V. Taintor 83 U.S. 366 (1872) "...Approximately one quarter of all released felony defendants fail to appear at trial. Some of these failures to appear (FTA) are due to sickness or forgetfulness and are quickly corrected, but many represent planned abscondments. After one year, some thirty percent of the felony defendants who initially fail to appear remain fugitives from the law. In absolute numbers, some 200,000 felony defendants fail to appear every year and of these, approximately 60,000 will remain fugitives for at least one year..."
U.S. Supreme Court decision: ...When bail is given, the principal is regarded as delivered to the custody of his sureties. Their dominion is a continuance of the original imprisonment. Whenever they choose to do so, they may seize him and deliver him up in their discharge; and if that cannot be done at once, they may imprison him until it can be done. They may exercise their rights in person or by agent. They may pursue him into another State; may arrest him on the Sabbath; and, if necessary, may break and enter his house for that purpose. The seizure is not made by virtue of new process. None is needed. It is likened to the rearrest by the sheriff of an escaping prisoner...
An exerpt from, Public vs. Private: Evidence from Bail Jumping by Eric Helland and Alexander Tabarrok
"We can be sure that the percentage of felony defendants who commit additional crimes is considerably higher than their rearrest rate. We might also expect that the felony defendants who fail toappear are the ones most likely to commit additional crimes..."
The study in its entirety can be found here.
IN THE NEWS:
November 7, 2008
(AP) - A Virginia man will spend 40 years in prison for killing an unarmed bail bondsman who was trying to arrest him.
Richmond Circuit Judge Beverly W. Snukals sentenced James E. Carr on Friday to 37 years for first-degree murder and three years for felonious use of a firearm. The sentences will run consecutive to a 10-year term on a prior robbery conviction.
Prosecutors said the 20-year-old Carr shot 39-year-old James W. Woolfolk III three times from behind as Woolfolk attempted to arrest him for skipping court on a felony drug charge.
The fatal shooting occurred March 6 at a house in South Richmond.
The news article in its original form can be found here.
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April 2009
YOU'VE BEEN SERVED ...Blair S. Walker, AARP Bulletin 4/09
A virtual maneuver took place in Canberra, Australia, where lawyers Mark McCormack and Jason Oliver used the online hangout Facebook to notify 62-yr-old retiree Gordon Poyser that he had lost his home after defaulting on the mortgage. "We had exhausted all other avenues," says Oliver, whose firm gained permission from an Australian court to serve notice via Facebook.

