Full editorial here

No Kootenai County judge wants to be the next Thomas Schroeder. In Minnesota's 7th Judicial District, Judge Schroeder is feared by defendants and their criminal attorneys. The judge is regarded as so tough on crime that defense attorneys asked that he be removed from their cases 98 times in the 12 months after July 1, 2004 – the most among the district's 20 judges. Yet, the nation in general and Kootenai County in particular consider him soft on crime. Schroeder will be remembered as the judge who allowed convicted child molester Joseph Edward Duncan to go free by setting bail in an unrelated molestation case at only $15,000. After Duncan posted the bail, of course, he slaughtered Mark McKenzie, Brenda Groene and Brenda's son, Slade, at their Wolf Lodge Bay home and allegedly kidnapped and abused siblings Dylan and Shasta Groene before killing Dylan, too. Now, defense attorneys Tim Gresback and Jim Siebe claim that Kootenai County judges are setting bail so high because of the "Duncan effect" that clients are in effect being held without bond. The two attorneys, who represent defendants throughout the state, say Idaho's bail rates are highest in Kootenai County -- D.F. Oliveria/Spokesman-Review.

Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger: Understand that bail is to insure that a person will show up in court to be held accountable. Currently, just over 70% of the active warrants in Kootenai County are for Fail to Appear. It seems that the judges are reacting to this high rate of non-compliance and using the only tool that they have to insure that people will appear for court... that of a higher bail.

Question: On a scale of one to 10, how to you rate excessive bail as a problem?

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