Bail Application- Your Rights And Perils

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Category: Law Reports

Created on Monday, 24 August 2015 00:00

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Bail Application- Your Rights And Perils

…Research, Information & Advocacy-- The Changing Boundaries of State Policing- Justice and Fair Trial begin with the Police- A Comparative Study of the Rights of The Victim, the Accused and the general Rules/Principles governing Bail Application & Process in Ghana and the United Kingdom

BRIEFS & MEMOS

In the UK, the Bail Act 1976 instructs courts to start with the presumption that an accused should be granted bail, unless there is a justified reason to refuse it. In deciding whether or not to grant bail, the court will among others consider the nature and seriousness of the crime; the character of the defendant, his past criminal record, associations and ties with the community; the defendant’s recorded previous in regard to his/her commitments to bail conditions; and the strength of the evidence against the defendant. If the police or a judge, wish to refuse a suspect a bail, the said custody officer, the judge or the prosecution ought to show why the accused could not be credited favourably, with any of the bailable conditions above. Under the Code for Crown Prosecutors, the Threshold Test may only be applied where the prosecutor is satisfied that all the following four requirements are met: *there is insufficient evidence currently available to apply the evidential stage of the Full Code Test, and *there are reasonable grounds for believing that further evidence will become available within a reasonable period, and *the seriousness or the circumstances of the case justifies the making of an immediate charging decision, and* there are continuing substantial grounds to object to bail in accordance with the Bail Act 1976 and, in all the circumstances of the case, an application to withhold bail may be properly made [1].