FURTHER GUARANTEES IN CRIMINAL CASES Excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishments inflicted. "This traditional right to freedom before
conviction permits the unhampered preparation of a defense, and
serves to prevent the infliction of punishment prior to
conviction. '. . . Unless this right to bail before trial is
preserved, the presumption of innocence, secured only after
centuries of struggle, would lose its meaning."1 "The bail
clause was lifted with slight changes from the English Bill of
Rights Act. In England that clause has never been thought to
accord a right to bail in all cases, but merely to provide that
bail shall not be excessive in those cases where it is proper to
grant bail. When this clause was carried over into our Bill of
Rights, nothing was said that indicated any different concept."2
These two contrasting views of the "excessive bail" provision,
uttered by the Court in the same Term, reflect the ambiguity
inherent in the phrase and t