Waiting to see what a judge decides in a bond hearing can be a stressful experience and while most will come out with a bond set and amount that has to be paid, there can come some instances where a judge will just outright deny bond. If this were to happen you may wonder what happens now? Well to discuss this, here are some things to know.
Why bail could be denied
The first thing to understand is why bail may have been denied in the first place. A judge decides on whether or not to allow for bond with a few different factors. Everything from past criminal history, severity of the charges and where you live can be taken into account but the predominant things a judge will think about is the safety of the defendant and society as a whole as well as what risks are there that the defendant will not come back for their court date, since this is the main point of a bond. If the charges are very violent in nature then a judge may deny bond to keep others safe. If a defendant is also from out-of-state and has a lot of resources, they may also rethink bond because it gives far more incentive not to show again if you have to make travel arrangements to come back to court.
What options you have
Now that the decision has been made and if the judge denies bond, there are essentially only two real options. The first is just to remain in jail until your hearing which could possibly be months down the line or it may be possible to appeal. Every state has different rules in regards to this however. Some states will allow for appeals while others may require a petition of writ habeas corpus to attempt to challenge. There is no guarantee that the decision can be overturned but the key is to try as quickly as possible after the judge hands down the verdict since there is only a limited window of time to change anything.
Overall, for the vast majority of defendants there will be no issue in being offered bond since the crime has to be extremely severe for it to be considered dangerous enough to deny bond outright but if this happens, there are not a lot of options but there are some that can be explored to get a second chance.
