Sinners and Saints

Abuse of our grand jury system by prosecutors is a major contributor to our rapidly escalating cost for the price of “justice”.  Citizens are indicted by a grand jury without the probable cause standard, “beyond a reasonable doubt”, required in a preliminary hearing.  This has a devastating effect on families and clogs our court system and jails with many that should not have been charged with a crime.

Other than with the grand jury system, open, public preliminary hearings and the right to legal representation are required in the United States as basic principles of justice. Most grand jury proceedings almost always follow the recommendations of the prosecutors.  A public hearing, on the other hand, prevents a case from going to trial on the sole word of a prosecutor.

If justice is to be served, the target of a grand jury investigation must be allowed to present his or her side. The person that chooses to testify isn’t entitled to a lawyer during questioning.  The accused may be indicted by a grand jury without testifying and without having appropriate legal representation; and is essentially considered guilty until proven innocent. Besides, the grand jury’s decision to indict doesn’t have to be unanimous.

Many people of interest to prosecutors rarely know they are the subject of a grand jury proceeding and are rarely given an opportunity to present their side.  It is easy to indict when only one side is heard.  A former Chief Judge of New York State said a prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.”

While in the state senate, I participated in many committee hearings; and during my tenure as an Arizona Corporation Commissioner, I took part in over 1,000 hearings.  Often I would hear one side of a presentation and wonder how anyone could refute the testimony.  Time-after-time after I heard the other side I would wonder why I had been so moved and impressed by the first party.

The United Kingdom abolished grand juries in 1933, New Zealand in 1961 and Canada in 1970.  Grand juries are today virtually unknown outside the United States.  Many of our states have now abolished the grand jury system. Connecticut and Pennsylvania abolished their use to return indictments, but retain them for investigations.

Because power tends to corrupt, our nation needs to take a hard look at the damage our grand juries cause individuals and families, and the harm to our judicial system and to tax payers.  Grand jury power to indict should be abolished in the interest of justice.

From www.constitution.org:

U.S. Grand Jury Reform

The grand jury at the federal level has had a troubled history. Required by the Constitution as a check on judicial and prosecutorial abuse, it has often been used as a tool of abuse against political dissidents.  Most grand juries are mere “rubber stamps” for prosecutors, but others become “runaway” grand juries, taking the lead in investigations of official corruption and abuse.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Grand Jury Abuses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.