MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A recent streak of inconsistent bonds given out for violent offenses by Shelby County judges and judicial commissioners has left some residents asking questions.
On March 13th, Charles Dawson's bond was set at $1.5 million on charges that included attempted first-degree murder for allegedly shooting at a house.
That dwarfs the bond for Memphis firefighter Cameron Land, which was lowered from $350,000 to just $5,000 Tuesday, despite being charged with criminally negligent homicide. The bond was paid that afternoon and Land was released.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said he understands people’s confusion when it comes to the wide-ranging bond amounts seemingly not matching up with the severity of the crimes.
“In the past, public safety wasn’t adequately considered in the bond amount,” he said. “Our prosecutors in V11 cases are going to make extra efforts to make sure that they are.”
The D. A’s office announced its Fast Track Violent Crime initiative (known as V11) in 2023 to help speed up criminal trials involving 11 violent crimes, including murder, carjacking and smash and grabs.
One of the ways it does that is by making sure more background research is done to accurately determine a suspect’s public safety risk.
Mulroy said that helped raise the bond for Geronimo Kee, accused of shooting a Memphis Police officer on I-240, from $175,000 to $500,000.
“We were concerned he might be able to post [bail],” Mulroy said.
Meanwhile, the Shelby County Commission has partnered with the University of Memphis Center for Community Research & Evaluation to examine the bond process, looking for trends and hoping to make the process more transparent.
“What are typical bail amounts for certain defendants, given certain circumstances, their offenses, their sort of demographics, these sorts of things,” said Associate Director and Chief Data Scientist Jonathan Bennett.
Still, the D.A. concedes that certain bonds will be different for similar charges based on other factors.
“What we’re really concerned about is not using the monetary amount as some sort of symbolic statement of our level of outrage at the underlying accused crime,” Mulroy said. “But trying to decide if the person can be trusted to be out while we decide whether they’re guilty or not.”
Mulroy reiterated that his office does not set bond amounts. That is the responsibility of the county judges and judicial commissioners.
The U of M research project into the bond process is early in the data-collecting stage, and Bennett said they don’t have a timeline yet for when they might release their findings.