In the report “Justice in Less Than a Minute” featured in The Appeal, attorneys state that Oklahoma County bail hearings fail to meet constitutional standards because they last less than a minute, skip the defendant’s ability to pay, and lack individual review. Most of the hearings last roughly a minute, some as quick as 20 seconds.
The Eighth Amendment of the United States prohibits the government from setting “excessive bail”. Most states have individual constitutional provisions that establish a right to bail, subject to exceptions for capital offenses or when a defendant is deemed a danger to the public. Though it does not explicitly grant an absolute right to be released on bail for every crime, it limits the amount of bail a court can set if bail is allowed.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled that detainees have a constitutional right to individualized hearings in which a judge asks about how likely they are to show up to court, financial circumstances and other factors that could affect their ability to post bail. But public defenders say that isn’t happening in Oklahoma County. Two other counties in the state have already been the target of civil rights lawsuits over similar practices.
A federal judge ruled in 2024 that Tulsa County’s bail system was unconstitutional because it lacked meaningful and timely hearings to determine whether defendants need to be kept in jail. Defendants appeared by video from a crowded room at the jail and weren’t given an opportunity to consult privately with a public defender, the federal judge wrote. Judges routinely told defendants not to talk about their case during the hearings and made bail determinations quickly, without explanation.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar lawsuit against Canadian County in 2019. People were being held in the county jail for weeks without a meaningful hearing, the lawsuit claimed. Canadian County initial hearings were virtual, quick and often closed to the public, said Megan Lambert, an ACLU lawyer on the Canadian County case. Defendants had no way to privately consult with legal counsel, present evidence or call on a witness, Lambert said. And judges rarely considered an individual’s circumstances or ability to afford bail.
Tamala Bridge, an assistant public defender, said she rarely has the opportunity to ask defendants questions during the video hearings. Many times, Bridge said she can’t hear the defendants on the courtroom’s small video screen as they speak into the tablet from jail. “It’s hard for me to watch every day the injustice that happens in that courtroom,” said Bridge, who has attended hearings in Riesen’s courtroom since January.
Read more in “Justice in Less Than a Minute? Oklahoma County Bail Hearings Don’t Meet Constitutional Standards, Attorneys Say” on The Appeal website. The Appeal is a nonprofit news organization that envisions a world in which systems of support and care, not punishment, create public safety and produces journalism that exposes the harms of a criminal legal system entrenched in centuries of systemic racism.
