Williams v. City of Montgomery

739 So. 2d 515, 1999 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 441, 1999 WL 463494
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJuly 9, 1999
Docket2980407
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 739 So. 2d 515 (Williams v. City of Montgomery) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. City of Montgomery, 739 So. 2d 515, 1999 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 441, 1999 WL 463494 (Ala. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

YATES, Judge.

Alonzo Williams and Jerrell Washington appeal from the trial court’s denial of their application for an injunction seeking to enjoin the City of Montgomery from requiring a cash bond on a capias warrant.

On September 6, 1998, Williams was arrested for possession of marijuana, driving with a suspended license, and driving without a license. At the time of his arrest, Williams had six outstanding capias warrants against him. Capias warrants are issued by the Montgomery Municipal Court against persons who have been convicted of misdemeanors, when they have lost or exhausted all rights of appeal and have failed to pay the fines imposed under their convictions or have failed to appear before the court and show the reason for their failure to pay. The six capias warrants were issued for Williams’s failure to pay fines imposed on convictions for failing to yield the right of way, running a stop sign, having an improper tag, two violations of the City’s noise ordinance, and giving a false name.

[517]*517There are four types of bail provided for in § 15-13-111, Ala.Code 1975: (1) cash bail; (2) judicial public bail; (3) professional surety bail; and (4) property bail. Cash bail is where cash in an amount equal to, or part of, the total sum of the bail is paid into court. Judicial public bail is where a defendant is released without any security; it is granted only when the defendants meet the requirements of § 15-13-145. Professional surety bail is where a qualified company issues a bond to the court on behalf of the defendant and becomes a surety on the bail. Property bail is where real property is pledged as a surety for the bail.

At the time of Williams’s arrest, the City had adopted a new bail policy with regard to capias warrants. The new policy provided that only cash bail or complete payment of the outstanding fines would be available under a capias warrant.

Williams was permitted to make bail on the new charges by any of the four methods set out in § 15-13-111. The record is unclear as to what type of bond Williams posted on the new charges; however, it is clear that he did post bond on those charges. On the six capias warrants, Williams could only make a cash bond or pay the amount of the fines owed on those convictions. Williams owed $719 in fines for his conviction on the six offenses underlying the capias warrants. Under the City’s new bail policy, Williams could have obtained his release only by either paying his fines ($719) or posting a cash bail of $500 per warrant ($3,000). Williams was unable to do either and remained in jail until September 8,1998.

On September 8, 1998, Williams filed in the circuit court an application for a temporary restraining order, and he petitioned for a permanent injunction against the City; Judge Curtis Springer, chief judge of the municipal court; and Patrick Murphy, the municipal court administrator, seeking to enjoin the City from implementing its new bail policy. That same day, the court denied the application for the temporary restraining order and set the matter for a hearing on the request for a permanent injunction.

On September 8, 1998, while the TRO hearing was proceeding, Williams went before a municipal-court judge for an indi-gency hearing. The judge found that Williams was not indigent. According to the record, if a defendant is found to be indigent, he is released; if the defendant is found not indigent, he is placed on probation and then released. On September 8, 1998, Williams was placed on probation and released from jail.

On September 16, 1998, Jerrell Washington was arrested and detained on a charge of trespass in the third degree. Washington was permitted to make bail on the trespass charge by any method set out in § 15-13-111. While Washington was detained, he was served with three capias warrants for his failure to pay fines totaling $1,216 on convictions for harassment, third-degree trespass, and third-degree theft. Washington could have obtained his release on the capias warrants by either paying the fines or posting cash bail in the amount of $500 per warrant ($1,500). On September 17, 1998, Washington went before a municipal-court judge for an indi-gency hearing; he was apparently found not indigent. He was placed on probation and then released.

On September 23, 1998, Williams amended his application to add Washington as an applicant. On September 25, 1998, the circuit court held the hearing on the request for a permanent injunction. The City argued that Williams and Washington (“the defendants”) lacked standing to seek the injunctions. The court noted in its order that the defendants had been released on probation shortly after their arrests, making them subject to arrest on another capias warrant if they did not comply with the conditions of their probation. Thus, the court found that the defendants had standing; the court denied [518]*518the motion for a permanent injunction. The defendants appeal.

The defendants argue that the City’s new bail policy violates Article I, § 16, of the Alabama Constitution; the Alabama Bail Reform Act of 1993, § 15-13-100 et seq.; and the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure. They also argue that the new bail policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in that, they argue, the new policy discriminates against poor defendants. We disagree.

Article I, § 16, of the Alabama Constitution provides:

“[A]ll persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the presumption great; and ... excessive bail shall not in any case be required.”

Section 16 secures to incarcerated defendants the right to nonexcessive bail “before conviction,” but it does not apply after there is a conviction. Post-conviction bail is not affected by § 16. Ex parte R.D., [Ms. CR-98-1269, May 28, 1999] — So.2d - (Ala.Crim.App.1999), citing Sanders v. State, 42 Ala.App. 419, 167 So.2d 174 (1964).

The section of the Alabama Bail Reform Act that expressly grants a defendant a right to bail is § 15-13-108. It secures a right to bail prior to conviction, stating: “In all cases of misdemeanors and felonies, unless otherwise specified, the defendant is, before conviction, entitled to bail as a matter of right....” (Emphasis added.) Section 15-13-111 sets out the four types of bail available, and § 15—13— 120 provides that a defendant may substitute one form of bail for another. The defendants argue that they should be allowed to substitute another type of bail for cash bail. It is undisputed that the defendants have that right to bail and to substitute one type of bail for another before trial. However, the defendants argue that they should be allowed to substitute the type of bail after conviction as well.

The only section of the Bail Reform Act dealing with post-conviction activities is § 15-13-109, which provides that where a defendant has been placed on or granted probation, and is arrested on a probation-violation warrant, it shall be discretionary with the court as to whether bail is granted and, if so, in what amount. Therefore, it appears that post-conviction bail is discretionary under the Bail Reform Act and that requiring a cash-only bond on a post-conviction capias warrant does not violate the Act.

The defendants cite Rule 7.3(b), Ala. R.Crim. P., for the proposition that cash-only bail is not a permissible condition of release.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ex Parte Singleton
902 So. 2d 132 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
739 So. 2d 515, 1999 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 441, 1999 WL 463494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-city-of-montgomery-alacivapp-1999.