No cash bail cases challenged in two Illinois Supreme Court hearings
[March 12, 2025]
By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – How courts are handling Illinois’ end to cash bail
is the subject of two cases heard by the Illinois Supreme Court Tuesday.
After a protracted legal challenge spurred on by state’s attorneys
across the state challenging the end of cash bail, the Illinois Supreme
Court found the Pretrial Fairness Act could go into effect in September
2023.
Tuesday, the court heard two pretrial detention cases that had different
outcomes concerning pretrial release of criminal defendants.
In Illinois vs. Antonio Cousins, a case involving firearms charges from
2021, the trial court denied pretrial detention in 2024. The state was
trying to keep Cousins behind bars arguing he posed a danger. The Fourth
District Appellate Court of Illinois sided with the state and ordered
another pretrial detention hearing. Cousins appealed to the Illinois
Supreme Court.
Assistant Attorney General Eric Levin argued the trial court didn’t give
adequate time for pretrial detention arguments and another hearing
should be granted.
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The Illinois Supreme Court - BlueRoomStream
“We’re not gonna have sort of a gotcha system where the hearing
didn’t go as it should have gone and so that was the state’s only
opportunity, and we’re just going to release a defendant without
regard whether the evidence showed a danger or a flight risk,” Levin
said.
Cousins’ public defender Lauren Bauser argued to justices to reverse
the appeals court.
“We had a full hearing on this question, it’s not a question about
automatic release. It’s just enforcing the presumption of release
that’s written into the Pretrial Fairness Act that the state did not
meet its burden to overcome,” Bauser said.
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