On August 5th, 2016, attorneys from the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Massachusetts and from Equal Justice Under Law filed a petition in the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County in Massachusetts. The attorneys represented an indigent woman charged with possession of a Class A controlled substance who had been jailed for being unable to pay her $250 bail. The plaintiff's petition challenged her detention as unlawful due to the State's failure to consider her ability to pay when setting her bail and jailing her simply because she was poor. The plaintiff claimed a failure to make this inquiry violated her Equal Protection and Due Process rights.

On August 25th, 2016, Justice Geraldine S. Hines issued an order reducing the plaintiff's bail from $250 to $200 after taking into account her ability to pay. Though Justice Hines recognized that plaintiff's bail issue was now moot, she noted that plaintiff's petition raised important constitutional questions. The court gave the plaintiff's attorneys leave to file an amended petition within thirty days to address whether the Massachusetts bail statute and its application are constitutional and to request systemic relief on behalf of a class of similarly situated individuals in the criminal justice system.

The plaintiff's attorneys filed an amended petition for relief on September 23, 2016, and the state filed its opposition on October 25. Justice Hines held hearings on January 27, 2017 and denied relief on August 8, 2017. Because the Court denied relief and because there has been no further activity on the docket, the case seems now to have ended, though it has not officially been closed.

Sarah Du - 10/18/2018


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