Freedomlaw.com Grand Juries and Other Functions

GRAND JURIES AND THE "OTHER FUNCTION"

Our form of government was designed to assure equality under the law. In theory, no one is immune from prosecution for criminal acts. For that reason, grand juries have been called the People's Panel and the Fourth Branch of Government. Citizens chosen to exercise the power of grand jurors have a responsibility to investigate and expose all criminal acts including those committed under color of law.

The purpose of this leaflet is to inform grand jurors of their lawful power and duty to independently investigate crimi- nal activity regardless of official position. A grand jury has the authority to demand prosecution by issuing a Presentment where justified. Once armed with this knowledge and the inherent threat to expose such misconduct, grand juries will be able to overcome prosecutors' efforts to cover-up crimes committed by government agents, officers and officials.

POWER IN CONSTITUTION

The most important and most neglected function of grand juries is to independently investigate criminal activity by those holding positions in government. Authority for doing this is provided in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitu- tion which says grand juries are to perform two functions: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury..."

A "Presentment" is defined in Black's Law Dictionary as, "an accusation, initiated by the grand jury itself, and in effect an instruction that an indictment be drawn. A written accusation of crime made and returned by the grand jury upon its own initiative in the exercise of its lawful inquisitorial powers, is in the form of a bill of indictment, and in practice is signed individually by all the grand jurors who return it."

The grand jury's two different functions can be described simply. Presentments are originated by a grand jury. Indictments are originated by a prosecutor. The Presentment power authorizes grand juries to independently investigate and demand prosecution for crimes committed by those otherwise shielded from accountability. When grand juries properly exercise their power, prosecu- tors and others in government are unable to act above the law. Unfortunately, the power is not adequately exercised.

POWER NOT USED

It is intuitively obvious the only reason grand juries need to issue Presentments is that prosecutors sometimes fail to prosecute. That might happen if crimes have been committed by government agents or officers, if the prosecutor has a corrupt self-interest in protecting wrongdoers by not prosecuting or if the prosecutor is directly involved in committing a crime.

In practice, government agents and officials are often immune from prosecution for three reasons: (1) Citizens chosen to serve on grand juries are generally not aware of their powers and duties (2) Courts and Government lawyers do not tell grand jurors about their power to issue Presentments and such information is deliberately and systematically suppressed, (3) The first two reasons allow government lawyers to have a de facto monopoly on criminal prosecutions.

JURY MANIPULATION

Recent events demonstrate the unrealized potential of grand juries to render justice and control the outcome of national events by preventing cover-ups.

Oklahoma City federal grand juror Hoppy Heidelberg performed an invaluable public service in October, 1995 by providing insight into how grand juries are manipulated. "Prosecutors treated us like idiots. It was like a programming sort of thing. They wanted to make sure he (Timothy McVeigh) looked like the man in the black hat... It was silly."

Mr. Heidelberg was dismissed by the Court for violating his oath to keep jury matters secret. He had granted interviews to a magazine while the jury continued to work on the federal building bombing case. In subsequent newspaper and radio interviews, Mr. Heidelberg revealed prosecutors did not provide information about the possible involvement of others in the explosion and never mentioned the possibility of multiple bombs.

Mr. Heidelberg was also concerned that jurors were not allowed to directly question witnesses but were required to log their questions, give them to prosecutors and let prosecu- tors ask the screened and modi- fied questions. (See pages 7-8 and 12 of the green "Handbook For Federal Grand Jurors" distributed by the court for the authorized procedure.)

Under those circumstances, and without support from other jurors, a real investigation was circumvented. If an independent grand jury had properly exer- cised its investigatory powers, they could even have prevented the premature demolition of the federal building which destroyed vital evidence.

WHAT CAN GRAND JURIES DO?

In addition to direct questioning of witnesses, grand juries can independently issue subpoenas for witnesses or documents and have the U.S. Marshal serve them. Any twelve Marchers of a panel can vote to issue a Presentment. If the U.S. Attorney refuses to prosecute, the grand jury can request the Court to appoint a special prosecutor.

In 1992, a special grand jury in Denver asked President- elect Bill Clinton to appoint a special prosecutor after U.S. Attorney Michael Norton refused to prosecute Dept. of Energy officials and Rockwell Interna- tional employees for environmen- tal crimes. Judge Sherman Finesilver had threatened twelve grand jurors for violating secrecy rules.

Jurors went public with a demand to prosecute individuals who polluted the air, water and soil with plutonium and other highly toxic substances at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. The jury's action resulted in Congressional hear- ings and forced the Judge to release the grand jury's report to the public. Clinton did not appoint a special prosecutor but took the unprecedented (although maybe unrelated) action of requesting that all U.S. Attorneys resign.

WHERE CRIME CAN BE FOUND

If the English historian Lord Acton was right that power corrupts, the logical place to look for crime and corruption is among those who hold powerful positions in government and are tempted to abuse their power. Citizens in general and the vast majority of grand jurors have been passive and derelict in performing the duties of citizenship. The Congressional hearings by politicians are not an effective method to discover and weed out the broad spectrum of criminal conduct and corrup- tion by government agents.

That is the job of the grand jury.

This leaflet was inspired by a 1995 grand juror's unanswered questions to a U.S. Magistrate in Portland, Oregon about jurors' other duties and functions. It is provided as a public servie and joint project of Portland FIJA (Fully Informed Jury Association) and Private Property Defense League (PPDL). You may contact either group for additional information at P.O. Box 219115, Portland, Oregon 97225, or at (503) 291-7439. It was written by William Vosburgh.

Or contact FIJA National at P.O. Box 59, Helmville, MT 59843. Phone/ Fax (406) 793-5550.

Go to the Self Help Legal Clinic
Liberty's Educational Advocacy Forum

Indiana's Fully Informed Jury Association, Inc.


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