Manchester stabbing in the center of renewed bail reform debate

During her budget speech to the legislature earlier this month, the governor of New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte, deviated from the proposals of expenses and income projections to highlight another priority.

“What happened in Manchester on Friday night is incredible,” Ayotte told the legislators gathered in Hall representatives.

Ayotte, a former prosecutor, described an incident of early February when a 25 -year -old man repeatedly stabbed another man at Elm Street, in the city center.

Instead of being in custody pending judgment, the man was prosecuted and then released, a decision that Ayotte blamed the State bail laws.

“I can’t emphasize this enough: send me legislation to fix this once and for all,” he said.

The “Fix” Ayotte is searching is for a bail system that has been the subject of an almost constant debate in New Hampshire since it was reviewed in 2018. It was then that a bipartisan group of legislators, Backed then Gov. Chris Sununu, passed a measure that was aimed at preventing homeless people from sitting in the jail cells awaiting their trial, simply because they did not have enough money to release on bail.

Opponents, including some in Application of the law, He warned that new policies would represent a risk for public security. February stabbing in Manchester is a new evidence of that, they say. But supporters of the reforms point to the statistics of crimes that show a constant reduction of violent and property crimes since the reform of the bond was promulgated.

They also warn that even Manchester’s case is more complicated than it may seem in sound bites and headlines.

A ‘rotating door’

In general terms, this is how the bail is currently in New Hampshire: after someone is arrested for an alleged crime, appears before a bail commissioner, a magistrate or a judge.

Prosecutors have the option of asking the Court of preventive detention, and if they do, they must prove it for “Clear and convincing” The evidence that the defendant is a danger to themselves or for the public, or demonstrates that the person is a risk of escape.

The judge makes the final decision, but the benefit of the doubt essentially goes to the defendant. Depending on the seriousness of the alleged crime, that defendant can be released on bail of personal recognition, which means that no cash or bond is required.

Critics say that the lack of cash bail and the speed at which the process now creates a rotating door, and some people commit a new crime while on bail, sometimes the same day.

They argue that the scale now leans too much in favor of liberation.

In the recent case of Manchester Stabbing, Mayor Jay Ruais He expressed an outrage similar to Ayotte after a judicial magistrate initially released the accused on a personal recognition bond on the objections of the prosecutors. The Manchester Police Department, in a press release, described the stabbing of an act of “extreme and randomly violence, and criticized the liberation of the defendant on bail. During the reading of man’s positions, two days after the initial bail hearing, the city’s prosecutors did not ask a judge of the District Court to reconsider their release.

This was not the first time that police departments and prosecutors have highlighted individual cases in which a defendant was released awaiting trial for their objections. And legislators have responded, including doing several Settings to the law since it was first approved in 2018.

But today it is largely the same system in place.

“We continue to slapped these band bands in this thing. And I really think it’s time for I like it: let’s return from the beginning, “said representative Ross Berry, a Weare Republican.

Even before Manchester stabbed, he wrote A bill to undo the reforms and return the bail system to its rules prior to 2018. That bill is now before legislators.

Berry said there have been too many headlines about people who commit themselves to bond, in some cases, violent crimes.

“Let’s try to find the original concept that was: low -level crimes, for a homeless person,” he said. “We don’t want to keep them in jail forever because they can’t pay a bail of $ 10, right?”

Berry’s bill still makes its way through the legislature, backed by the Republican majority. An amendment backed by Ayotte would give the judges more authority to detain the defendants, but did not discard the entire system adopted in 2018.

However, supporters of the original reforms say that although additional adjustments can be beneficial, the general process works well. Representative Buzz Scher, a democratic and criminal defense lawyer in the state, Dispute the accusations Made by some that the system allows dangerous people to walk the streets.

“The fundamental problem with the fear tactics that are used is that it is inconsistent with the facts,” he says.

Scher points out FBI statistics They show violent crimes and real estate crimes in New Hampshire have continued to decrease. Between 2011 and 2023, these crimes have dropped almost 58% according to FBI data, without a notable increase after the 2018 bail reforms.

He does not believe that the State should discard the entire system.

“We don’t go on our skis,” says Scher. “We discovered what really happened before starting to use cases as a child for a child for bail reform.”

An insult, a blow

The case in question, says Scher, is the recent case of Manchester.

Last week, Kyle Bisson, the defendant accused of stabbing another man at Elm Street, returned to a Court Chamber for an appeal requested by state prosecutors on his bond status.

A lawyer from the Hillsborough County Prosecutor’s Office accompanied the judge through the case, including the sample of incident surveillance images, which took place outside the Bunny’s convenience history at approximately 7 pm

The video shows Bisson and another man, identified in the judicial documentation by his initials, MP, in a prolonged verbal argument.

The men move away from each other, continue to make gestures, then return repeatedly and get on the face of the other.

Surveillance images have no sound, but Belson, which is black, states that the deputy, which is white, used racial insults, including word N.

During the confrontation, Bisson tells MP that he has a knife, which leads MP to affirm that he also carries a knife. Then, MP Slugs Bisson in the face. There is a brief fight on the ground.

In the Court, the prosecutor of County Patrick Iives narrated for the judge what happens next.

“Those stabbed once, stab twice, stab for the third time, stable for the fourth time and are out of the picture,” Iives told the Court.

In the video, men return to view. They are standing. MP goes back, when Belson throws himself and stabs him repeatedly again.

In total, MP suffered nine wounds, while Bisson was also stabbed once during the fight on the floor.

After the video was shown, IVES asked Judge Michael Klass to label a risk of public security and stop him waiting for trial.

“The question before the court is, we are worried that this may happen again?” IVES asked.

Klass replied that “it has to be more than” something could happen, “right?” To which Iives agreed.

“It has to be clear and convincing that there will be a danger to the public, right?” Klass said, pointing out the legal standard in the heart of the current law.

There were more evidence discussed in the Court: Bisson has a criminal record. Last year, he declared himself guilty of threatening criminal for hitting a closed door during an altercation with a family member.

Finally, the judge, when he said his ruling, said that the key facts are that Bisson was first beaten by a man who said he also had a knife. That was enough to tip the scale in favor of Bisson and allow him to leave the court, free until his trial.

If Bisson must fulfill any time in jail for this incident, it will only be if a jury finds it guilty.

As the Bisson case develops, New Hampshire’s bail system will face its own kind of judgment, in Concord, where legislators are discussing whether to eliminate it, rewrite or leave it intact.