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Dilemma over bail request unresolvedPORTLAND, Maine (UPI) — Judges should have discretion to grant bail pending appeal for those found guilty of capital crimes, attorneys for convicted murderess Nancy A. Fredette told the Maine Supreme JudicialCourt.Lawyer Caroline Glassman of Portland also urged the high court Thursday to permit bail before trial for people accused of capital offenses.An 1838 amendment to the Maine Constitution provided: “No personbefore conviction shall be bailable (for capital offenses) when the proof is evident or the presumption great.”“I cannot conceive it was the intent of our Legislature to deprive people of the right to bail,” Mrs. Glassman said.Chief Justice Vincent L. McKusick in July denied bail for Mrs. Fredette, 36, pending appeal of her murder conviction. The appeal will probably not be considered by the high court until early next year.The mother of six was found guilty July 1 of murdering her husband Frederick in May 1978, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.McKusick said the constitutional provision would also apply to deny bail after conviction for capital crimes.“Historically... the King’s bench had discretion in all cases,” Mrs. Glassman argued in appealing McKusick’s ruling. “We are equating our Superior Court to the Ring’s Dench, with discretion in all cases.”But Assistant Attorney General William R. Stokes said the Legislature’s purpose in enacting the 1838 amendment “was to make sure those crimes that had been capital would continue to be non-bailable.”And Justice Sidney W. Wermck was uncertain just what the Legislature intended.“I lie awake nights trying to figure out what it’s all about,” Wemick said. “That’s the great mystery here, and it’s been a great mystery since 1838.”
Newspaper Details
Biddeford Kennebunk Wells Journal Tribune
Biddeford, Maine, US
Fri, Sep 05, 1980
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 25 Jan 2021
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