Bail Conditions
Introduction:
This note will discuss common bail conditions, what happens after the fulfilment of the conditions of the bail, and the variation of the conditions. The conditions to be discussed are bail with and without sureties and sureties with and without justification.
Bail Conditions:
When granting bail to a person, Section 96(3) of the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30) provides that:
The amount and conditions of bail shall be fixed with due regard to the circumstances of the case and shall not be excessive or harsh.
Among others, the following are some of the bail conditions:
1. Grant of Bail With Sureties:
As a bail condition, the arrested/accused may be asked to enter into a bond with sureties. This simply means the accused would be required to present a person who guarantees or undertakes to ensure that the accused will appear in court or any place whenever needed.
The fact that sureties can be required as a condition of bail is provided in sections 16 and 96 of Act 30.
Note that if bail is with sureties, Section 101 allows for a surety to be discharged upon an application by the surety. This is essentially a surety informing the court that he is no longer willing to stand as surety for the accused. Upon such an act, Section 101 provides that the magistrate shall issue a warrant for the arrest of the accused whose surety has been discharged and shall call upon him to find other sureties. If he does, he will be released again; else, he will be committed to prison.
2. Grant of Bail Without Sureties:
A person may be granted bail without surety. This simply means that the person (accused/suspect) undertakes to appear in court or any place whenever needed. This condition is usually given to persons with high recognition in society or persons with a high socio-economic status.
This condition is often referred to as self-recognizance, own recognizance bail, or personal recognizance bail, defined in Black’s Law Dictionary as:
The release of a defendant in a criminal case in which the court takes the defendant's word that he or she will appear for a scheduled matter or when told to appear. This type of release dispenses with the necessity of the person's posting money or having a surety sign a bond with the court.
In the Practice Direction (Determination of Bail and Consequential Matters), 2019, issued by Chief Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo, it was provided that a self-recognisance bail:
Shall be executed by the accused completing and signing Form 2; (Self-Recognisance) attached to this Direction as Appendix 2.
3. Surety With Justification:
Here, the persons that stand surety are required to demonstrate that they can pay the amount of the bond if the accused fails to appear in court or violates the conditions of bail. It also means the surety should show that he has enough properties to be able to pay the bail amount if the principal fails to appear when needed.
There is currently a form by the Judicial Service titled “Justification of Sureties” by which the sureties make oath and say that after the payment of all their debts, they are worth Ghc X amount. This is to satisfy the court that the surety can pay if the accused fails to show up.
4. Surety Without Justification:
Here, the sureties do not need to prove or demonstrate their ability to pay the amount of the bond. This may be used if the amount involved is small and the surety is known to have the ability to pay the amount.
What Happens After Fulfilment of the Conditions in the Bail Bond:
Once the conditions in the bail bond have been fulfilled, Section 98 of Act 30 provides that the accused shall be released from custody. The section reads:
(1) Where the execution of a bond is a condition of the release of any person, that person shall be released as soon as the bond has been executed and if he is in prison or police custody, the Court shall issue an order of release to the officer in charge of the prison or other place of detention and the officer on receipt of the order shall release him.
(2) Nothing in this section or in section 96 shall require the release of any person liable to be detained for some matter other than that in respect of which the bond was executed.
The effect of subsection 2 is that if a person is liable to be detained in respect of offence A, and he fulfils the conditions of the bail bond for offence B, the fulfilment of the conditions for offence B will not result in his release.
Variation of a Recognizance:
In Section 100 of Act 30, it is provided that the conditions of bail may be varied. The section reads:
If at any time after a bond has been entered into it appears to the Court that for any reason the sureties are unsuitable or that having regard to all the circumstances of the case, the amount of the bond is insufficient, the Court may issue a summons or warrant for the appearance of the principal, and upon him coming before the Court, may order him to execute a fresh bond in another amount or with other surety or sureties, as the case may be, and on his failing to do so may commit him to prison for a term not exceeding the maximum term for which he could have been committed to prison had he failed to produce a surety in the first instance.
Thus, the court may vary the amount of the bond (the amount to be paid if the principal fails to appear) or the persons that stood surety.