{"id":459115,"date":"2025-12-20T02:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T02:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459115\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T02:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T02:49:10","slug":"texas-law-allows-judges-to-deny-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459115\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas law allows judges to deny bail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston<\/strong> \u2013 For the first time in Texas, a law approved by voters is being used to deny bail to a violent crime suspect. Proposition 3 gives judges the discretion to hold certain defendants without bond, changing how the state handles potentially dangerous offenders.<\/p>\n

KPRC\u2019s Deven Clarke spoke with Andy Kahan, director of Victim Services at Crime Stoppers of Houston, who spent years advocating for the law.<\/p>\n

Kahan has organized annual holiday memorials for families who have lost loved ones to violence. \u201cWe have five trees decorated with ornaments. Every year we bring families together during the holidays,\u201d he said. Each ornament represents a murder victim, highlighting the ongoing grief these families carry.<\/p>\n

Since 2019, Kahan has tracked more than 220 cases in which people were killed by defendants released on multiple felony or personal recognizance bonds. He believes some of these cases might have turned out differently under today\u2019s law.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartha Medina was a 71-year-old grandmother. She was followed from a bank, went to McDonald\u2019s, and was murdered during an attempted carjacking,\u201d Kahan said. Cases like hers fueled a years-long push to pass Proposition 3, which allows judges to keep dangerous defendants behind bars before trial.<\/p>\n

The legislation faced multiple setbacks before passing. \u201c2019, it failed. 2021, failed again. 2023, we couldn\u2019t even get it out of the House. And in 2025, we finally got it passed,\u201d Kahan said.<\/p>\n

The law was first applied following the Dec. 4 killing of 36-year-old Yadua Barraza Hernandez, who was allegedly gunned down while working in his family\u2019s taco truck. \u201cBecause the murder happened after December 1st\u2014when Prop 3 went into effect\u2014the DA could request a no-bond hearing, and the judge granted it. To my knowledge, this is the first time Prop 3 has ever been used,\u201d Kahan said.<\/p>\n

For families who have already lost loved ones, justice cannot undo the pain. But Kahan and other supporters say the law may prevent the next tragedy. \u201cWhen I saw that, I smiled and said\u2014we did it. Seeing something you fought for over six years actually protect a family\u2026 that\u2019s why we do this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is important to note that Proposition 3 does not allow judges to revoke bail in past cases. It only applies moving forward. Supporters say that forward motion could mean lives spared, families kept whole, and future generations with brighter futures, as violent offenders may now remain behind bars.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston \u2013 For the first time in Texas, a law approved by voters is being used to deny…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":459116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[37635,101101,4219,4345,8152,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-459115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-bail","9":"tag-bail-reform","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-safety","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}