(The Center Square) – How courts are handling Illinois’ end to cash bail is the subject of two cases heard by the Illinois Supreme Court Tuesday.
After a protracted legal challenge spurred on by state’s attorneys across the state challenging the end of cash bail, the Illinois Supreme Court found the Pretrial Fairness Act could go into effect in September 2023.
Tuesday, the court heard two pretrial detention cases that had different outcomes concerning pretrial release of criminal defendants.
In Illinois vs. Antonio Cousins, a case involving firearms charges from 2021, the trial court denied pretrial detention in 2024. The state was trying to keep Cousins behind bars arguing he posed a danger. The Fourth District Appellate Court of Illinois sided with the state and ordered another pretrial detention hearing. Cousins appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Assistant Attorney General Eric Levin argued the trial court didn’t give adequate time for pretrial detention arguments and another hearing should be granted.
“We’re not gonna have sort of a gotcha system where the hearing didn’t go as it should have gone and so that was the state’s only opportunity, and we’re just going to release a defendant without regard whether the evidence showed a danger or a flight risk,” Levin said.
Cousins’ public defender Lauren Bauser argued to justices to reverse the appeals court.
“We had a full hearing on this question, it’s not a question about automatic release. It’s just enforcing the presumption of release that’s written into the Pretrial Fairness Act that the state did not meet its burden to overcome,” Bauser said.
In a separate firearms related case from 2024, Illinois v. Tyrell Cooper, the trial court held a hearing after the 48 hours prescribed by law. The appeals court reversed detention and ordered pretrial release.
The state argued to Supreme Court justices to affirm the lower court’s decision on pretrial detention. Assistant Attorney General Erin O’Connell asked justices to find the 48 hour threshold for pretrial detention hearings to be directory, not mandatory.
“Even assuming that this was two hours late, he’s not entitled to invalidate the detention order and the court’s authority to detain him was preserved,” O’Connell said.
Cooper’s counsel Jonathan Krieger argued pretrial release should be granted.
“The legislature in crafting [the law] could have excluded weekends in general and it didn’t,” Krieger said.
Both cases were taken under advisement with rulings possible in the months ahead.
