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Texas voters on Tuesday were poised to amend the state Constitution to require judges to deny bail in certain cases to defendants accused of committing specific violent offenses, likely cementing a long-running push by Gov. Greg Abbott to keep more people behind bars before trial.
Proposition 3 creates a list of offenses, including murder, aggravated sexual assault and human trafficking, for which a judge must deny bail if the state has demonstrated that pretrial detention of the defendant is necessary to ensure public safety or the individual’s appearance in court. The measure grants defendants the right to an attorney during their bail hearings.
The measure had received nearly 64% support from statewide voters Tuesday evening, according to early and mail-in voting results.
Before Proposition 3, the Texas Constitution granted almost everyone who is arrested the right to be released on bail. The limited exceptions for whom judges could deny bail were those charged with capital murder and those accused of certain repeat felonies or bail violations.
According to the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court, pretrial detention largely should not be considered the default, since criminal defendants are legally presumed innocent. Bail is a legal tool used around the country to incentivize people accused of a crime to appear at their court hearings. People who cannot afford to pay their bail are often left detained for weeks or months, even though bail amounts are not meant to serve as a form of punishment.
Proponents of Proposition 3 argued the measure was necessary to rein in “activist judges” and ensure dangerous people do not commit more violent crimes while awaiting trial.
“Murderers belong behind bars. Not set free to kill again like what happened in Houston and other places,” Abbott posted on social media last month. “Proposition 3 on the ballot this November needs your vote to ensure Texas keeps the most dangerous criminals behind bars.”
Crime Stoppers of Houston, a nonprofit that supported Proposition 3, documented more than 200 people in Harris County killed by defendants who were released on multiple felony or personal bonds since 2020.
In an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Crime Stoppers CEO Rania Mankarious and Director of Victim Services and Advocacy Andy Kahan argued that Proposition 3 “ensures fairness while giving our justice system the ability to protect the public. It is not a carte blanche for incarceration — it is a long-overdue safeguard against repeat violent offenders who have already demonstrated their risk to reoffend.”
Civil rights groups, meanwhile, opposed Proposition 3, arguing that it ties the hands of judges and infringes on the freedom of anyone accused of certain crimes — including those who are wrongfully accused. Critics of the measure also argued that detaining more people before trial would swell the state’s already overcrowded jail population and hurt public safety, citing studies finding that pretrial detention made people more likely to commit future crimes.
The Legislature overwhelmingly adopted Senate Joint Resolution 5, which put Proposition 3 on the ballot, earlier this year as part of a broader package cracking down on the state’s bail laws.
Similar proposals had repeatedly died in recent years, often failing to secure enough Democratic support in the House to reach the two-thirds threshold required for constitutional amendments. But SJR 5 passed the lower chamber on a 133 to 8 vote, after lawmakers from both parties spent weeks negotiating a version that brought some initially skeptical Democrats on board.
That effort reflected the shifting politics of crime and public safety across the nation. The package’s movement in the Texas House continued a longer-term evolution in the state’s approach to criminal justice reform, from a focus on reducing mass incarceration and wealth-based detention to increasing certain criminal penalties and keeping more defendants in jail.
