Ex Parte Stokes

Earnest Stokes filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the Bibb Circuit Court's order of May 23, 2007, increasing the amount of Stokes's appearance bond and imposing additional conditions upon his release. We grant the petition in part and deny it in part.

On September 20, 2005, Syble Stokes was shot and killed. On March 31, 2006, Earnest Stokes ("Stokes"), Syble's husband, was arrested and charged, under § 13A-6-2(a)(1), Ala. Code 1975, with her murder. The district court of Bibb County initially set the amount of Stokes's appearance bond at $2,000,000. With the State's…