By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A recent homicide in Wichita highlighted the right of defendants to bond out of jail. Nineteen-year-old Daryon Boone is accused of first-degree murder after allegedly shooting and killing 69-year-old Norma Williams as she drove home from a football game. Public outrage grew at the news of Boone's release on a $500,000 bond. Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said that's part of a defendant's Constitutional rights.
"In the United States, you're innocent until you're proven guilty," he said. "Therefore, you have the Constitutional right to post a bond to get out of jail until such time as you go to trial because you're innocent, technically, until a judge or jury says not."
A bond is little more than a guarantee a defendant will show up to court. Defendants may pay 100 percent of the listed bond in cash, which may later be returned or applied to fines, or the defendant can hire a bonding agent to essentially write an insurance policy. The risk is the bonding agent is then on the hook for 100 percent of the bond should the defendant not appear in court. The reward is the agent gets to keep the money paid by the defendant.
"The bonding company does not have to charge you 10 percent," said Bellendir. "This is a private contract between you and them. They may charge you as little as 1-2-3 percent, they may charge you five percent if they don't think you're much of a risk."
Bonds typically come with conditions attached, such as avoiding other parties associated with an offense, abstaining from drug or alcohol use, or remaining in the state of residence. Several states have eliminated bail altogether, and Kansas is one of just a handful of states with no set fee that must be charged by bond agents.