Ex parte Ryan

By the Court, Wallace, C. J.: The prisoner was arrested upon a charge of attempting to murder one Brown, a policeman. An examination had before the Police Court resulted in his being held to answer the charge, bail being fixed at fifteen thousand dollars. The Grand Jury subsequently found a true bill against Mm for an assault with an attempt to commit murder—a felony punishable by imprisonment in the State Prison for a term of not less than one nor more than fourteen years—and upon this indictment, pending in the municipal Court, he is held to answer.

1. It appears by the petition for the writ that, after the indictment had been transmitted to the latter Court, an application to admit the prisoner to bail was denied by the Court, by reason of a supposed absence of power to hear the application. The order of the Court declining to fix the amount of bail upon the indictment pending before it was placed upon the ground “that the said bail had been fixed by the committing magistrate.” With much respect for the expressed views of the learned Judge of the Municipal Court, I find myself unable to give them my assent in this instance. It cannot be correctly affirmed that the action of the Police Court upon the charge before it necessarily oper[557]ated to fix the amount of bail to be given on the indictment subsequently found. The charge mentioned in section one hundred and forty-six, and the indictment mentioned in section two hundred and six of the Criminal Practice Act are not the same thing, and the third subdivision of section five hundred and thirteen of the same Act renders it clear, if there had been otherwise any doubt, that the Court in which a criminal indictment is pending has the authority to fix the amount of bail to be given by the prisoner, irrespective of any action theretofore taken by the committing magistrate. Indeed, upon any other view the most mischievous consequences might follow. The committing magistrate might, in a particular instance, have let the prisoner to bail in' an amount obviously too small to secure his appearance. Circumstances, too, may have intervened the action of the committing magistrate and the finding of the indictment which would of themselves require a change in the amount of b.ail fixed in the first instance, so as to afford adequate security upon the one hand, and, at the same time, avoid needless oppression upon the other. The nature of proceedings in bail, and the purpose at which they aim, require that the authority and discretion of the Court having jurisdiction of the offense, to admit to bail, to increase or reduce the amount of bail, etc., should be exercised whenever substantial justice Avould thereby be promoted.