Texas Tribune: Certain criminal suspects would be denied bail under changes OK’d by Texas Senate panel

A Texas Senate committee on Wednesday advanced a package of bills aimed at keeping more defendants behind bars while they await trial for violent criminal charges.

Senate Bill 9, authored by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, builds on a recent GOP law that established a list of offenses for which defendants may not be released on low-cost or cashless personal bonds. The latest measure would add four new offenses to the list: unlawful possession of a firearm, violation of a family violence protective order, terroristic threat, and murder as a result of manufacturing or delivering fentanyl.

Huffman is also proposing for the third straight session to amend the Texas Constitution to give judges more discretion to deny bail outright. For now, defendants are largely guaranteed the right to pretrial release except in limited circumstances, like when charged with capital murder. Huffman’s proposal would let judges deny the option to post bail for defendants accused of murder, along with aggravated kidnapping, robbery or assault with a weapon.

The measure, Senate Joint Resolution 5, requires two-thirds approval in both chambers to be placed on the statewide ballot. Similar versions have passed the Senate several times in prior sessions, each time dying in the House.

Huffman is also pushing for the first time Senate Joint Resolution 1 that would prevent judges from giving bail to undocumented immigrants who have been accused of committing a felony. According to the bill authors, the resolution would help Texas comply with the Laken Riley Act, the first bill President Donald Trump signed into law in his second term. Named after a Georgia nursing student killed by an undocumented immigrant, the law requires law enforcement officers to detain undocumented immigrants arrested for or charged with certain crimes.

Texas Jail Project staff, Goldie and Amaal testified at the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice.