SAN ANTONIO – The president of the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyers Association is calling an executive order issued Sunday by Gov. Greg Abbott unconstitutional.
The order bans suspects accused of, or previously convicted of, violent crimes from being released on public recognizance bonds.
“We are deeply offended by the governor’s order,” Loraine Efron said Wednesday. “We believe it’s unconstitutional.”
Efron also called the order discriminatory.
“This order is disproportionately unfair to the poor and has the effect of keeping the poor in jail and those with money on release even if their offenses are the same,” Efron said.
Abbott blocks release of some inmates who can’t pay bail
Abbott said the order is to protect the public from what he labeled as “dangerous criminals.”
While the order is aimed at addressing COVID-19 health concerns, Efron said it ventures into what some say is a broken and unfair bail bond system. A move she described as “a scary step to take.”
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
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