Analysis: The Great Bail Debate

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Police say the two men from Indiana bound employees at a New Orleans pharmacy with zip ties before getting into a gunfight with police officers, one of whom was hit in the shoulder.

The insult later added to the injury, at least as far as the New Orleans district attorney is concerned, is that the men arrested in last week's robbery in uptown New Orleans were labeled "low risk" under the criteria of a pre-trial assessment tool used to gauge how high bail should be set for those awaiting trial.

"Here we have a violent offender who attempted to rob a business and two employees at gunpoint, opened fire upon three police officers who responded - striking and injuring one of them - and comes to our city from Indianapolis, which should establish a risk of flight," Cannizzaro said in a news release.

Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell was praised by Cannizzaro for "disregarding this tool" and setting bond at well over $1 million for each.

It's not the first time Cantrell has been characterized as not following certain protocols involving the setting of bail. And he hasn't always drawn praise for it. Coincidentally he had agreed only a few days earlier to establish policies to ensure that defendants in criminal cases aren't jailed simply because they cannot afford bail. The agreement filed in U.S. District Court came after plaintiffs in a lawsuit said he had violated an earlier federal judgment regarding inquiries that must be made into defendants' ability to pay bail or alternatives to bail.

Plaintiffs complained that he set high bails for those hard-pressed to pay and unlikely to miss court.

As for the setting of bail in last week's robbery, with the suspects facing charges including armed robbery and attempted first-degree murder of a police officer, the whole episode is either an indictment of the risk...