Remember good ol' boy Philip Sailors, who confused his driveway with a free-fire zone and killed a Hispanic young man, Rodrigo Abad Diaz? Turn's out that Mr. Sailors' best friend is the same DA who's charging him with murder From (NBC Latino (1/30/13):
The bond decision was signed off on by Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who defended the bond and said he did not put any consideration into whether Sailors’ release could inflame tensions after Diaz’s death.
“The purpose of a bond is to prevent a defendant from committing another offense or to prevent him from fleeing,” he says. “This is a 69-year-old man with no prior criminal record and I don’t think he’s a flight risk. We confiscated his firearms, he’s supposed to turn in any firearms, and I don’t think there’s a likelihood that he’s going to commit another crime so I don’t want to commit jail space housing him.”
Got that? The guy you're charging with murder says he's turned in all his guns. And, even though you're charging him with, you know,
shooting someone in cold blood, you don't think he'll commit another crime.
Now, what if the positions were reversed, and it had been somebody named Rodrigo who'd done the shooting? Bond still set at $11,000?