Bail in a Lehigh County criminal case is the security required and given for the release of a person in the custody of the law, conditioned upon a written undertaking that the person will appear when required and do all other things stipulated therein. This is from the Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 103. The fundamental purpose of bail in any criminal case is to secure the presence of the accused at trial. In summary cases, bail is termed "collateral", which is defined as the cash or cash equivalent deposited in summary cases. After release on bail following arrest, a defendant assumes the responsibility of being available for any required court appearance upon receipt of reasonable notice and in getting a Lehigh County criminal lawyer.
The 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, "excessive bail shall not be required." This is a fundamental principle, basic tenant of jurisprudence and applies to the states through the operation of the 14th amendment. Although the 8th Amendment prohibits states from imposing excessive bail, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the amendment does not prohibit the states from denying bail altogether in serious cases.
The right to bail before trial is guaranteed by Article 1 Section 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which provides "all prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great in addition, the judicial code provides that excessive bail will not be required. However, the right to release on bail before trial is conditioned upon the accused giving adequate assurance that he or she will appear for trial."
If the court reasonably concludes that a defendant may not appear for trial no matter how high the bail is set, it may not grant bail altogether. For example, if the accused defendant has "jumped bail" in past offense, or if after committing a murder, the accused defendant fled the Commonwealth and was returned to Pennsylvania on a fugitive warrant, bail may be properly denied. Bail may also be denied when the defendant is charged with a capital offense, but only when the court finds "the proof is evident with the presumption great" that a capital offense has been committed. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has found that the constitutional phrase "capital offense" is a definition of a penalty. For the purposes of bail, only murder in the first degree constitutes a capital offense for which the death penalty may be imposed. If the right to bail or the appropriate amount of bail is contested, the burden of proof rests on the Commonwealth to establish that the defendant will not appear for trial or is otherwise not entitled to bail.