So for example, a guy murders people, gets arrested and a bail is set for 5 million dollars. Does the guy walk off if the bail is paid? plz 🙂
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If there was no such thing as bail, when you got arrested you’d have to sit in jail waiting for trial and all throughout the trial. The idea behind bail is that since you haven’t been found guilty yet, what if we could let you go home and wait for trial.
But what if you escaped justice by just not showing up for your trial? That’s no good. So we need some way to ensure that you’ll show up. So we make you give the court some amount of money. If you don’t show up, the money is forfeit. Since it’s your money or a family member’s money you’ll want to show up in court. Once the trial is over, you get the money back.
The more likely the court thinks you are to run – the more bail they ask for
The more heinous the crime, the more bail they ask for (the reasoning here is that the worse your crime, the worst the punishment will be. So you might be willing to throw away a lot of money if it means you won’t go to jail for decades)
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