I added all but the first of the paragraphs below on Grand Jury Historyto the Wikipedia article on the Grand Jury, so readers would better understand THEIR power in a Grand Jury, derived from 800 years since the GREAT CHARTER OF THE LIBERTIES (Magna Carta). History[edit] The first instance of a grand jury can be traced back to the Assize of Clarendon, an 1166 act of Henry II of England.[5] In fact, Henrys chief effect on the development of the English monarchy was to increase the jurisdiction of the royal courts at the expense of the feudal courts. Itinerant justices on regular circuits were sent out once each year to enforce the Kings Peace. To make this system of royal criminal justice more effective, Henry employed the method of inquest used by William the Conqueror in the Domesday Book. In each shire, a body of important men was sworn (juré) to report to the sheriff all crimes committed since the last session of the circuit court. Thus originated the modern grand jury that presents information for an indictment.[6] The grand jury was later recognized by King John in Magna Carta in 1215 on demand of the nobility.[7] The Grand Jury is celebrating its 800th birthday in 2015, because a precursor to the Grand Jury is defined in Article 61, the longest of the 63 articles of the Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum (Latin: the Great Charter of the Liberties) [8] signed (under duress by the Barons who basically said, Do or Die.) by King John on 15 June 1215. The document was primarily composed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton (1150-1228), who is also the man who divided the books of the Bible into chapters and verses, somewhat like Blackstone did in 1759 dividing his Magna Carta into 63 Articles. Blackstone also wrote about the Citizens of the Jury: “the best investigators of truth, and the surest guardians of public justice.” By the Magna Carta, twenty five Barons were named to a body (a Grand Jury of sorts) to oversee the acts and actions of the king to assure those acts or actions did not violate the Liberties of the people. The Magna Carta author, Archbishop Langton, was a Bible scholar, so the concept of the Grand Jury derives from Deuteronomy 25:1 (Quote from King James Version of 1611, nearly 400 years later, but the Bible existed long before the KJV.): If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. Thus the Grand Jury has been described as the Shield and the Sword of the People, as a Shield for the People from abusive indictments of the government, or malicious indictments of individuals, and as the Sword of the People to cut away crime by any private individual, or cut away crime by any public servant, whether in the Judicial, Executive, or Legislative branches. Notable cases[edit] That Grand Jury Sword of the People function against abuse of Executive Power was seen during the Watergate crisis in America, in United States v. Nixon, the U.S. supreme Court on 23 July 1974 ruled 8 to 0 that Executive Privilege applied only to the co-equal branches, the Legislative and Judicial, not to the Grand Jury subpoenas, thus implying the Grand Jury was a Fourth Branch of Government. The second Watergate Grand Jury indicted seven lawyers in the White House, all who eventually served time in prison, and named President Nixon as a secret, un-indicted, co-conspirator, but in reality, there are few if any political secrets in the nations capital. As a result, the Grand Jury was the Sword that motivated Nixon to resign on 8 August 1974. Even though pardoned by President Gerald Ford, about a year later, Nixon had to come testify before the Grand Jury. Similarly, in 1998, President Clinton became the first sitting president to testify before the Office of Independent Council as the subject of a grand-jury investigation. The testimony came after a four-year investigation into Clinton and his wife Hillarys alleged involvement in several scandals. Revelations from the investigation sparked a battle in Congress over whether or not to impeach Clinton. While Democrats favored censure, Republicans called loudly for impeachment, claiming Clinton was unfit to lead the country. In December 1998, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the president, but after a five-week trial in the Senate, Clinton was acquitted. Public opinion polls at the time revealed that while many people disapproved of Clintons extramarital affair--which he conducted in the White House Oval Office—most did not consider it an action worthy of impeachment or resignation. [9] Part of Clintons Plea Agreement with Federal Prosecutors is that Clinton would surrender his Bar license to practice law, not much too much of a penalty because Clinton could make far more money as a professional speaker than as a lawyer. On the other hand, several Grand Juries served as a Shield against the excesses of President Jefferson who made several attempts before different Grand Juries. Jefferson tried unsuccessfully in Grand Jury in the Commonwealth of Kentucky (state), the Missouri Territory, and the Louisiana Territory to obtain from a Grand Jury a Bill of Indictment for Treason upon Aaron Burr, his former Vice President. Finally in his home state of Virginia, a Grand Jury indicted Aaron Burr. But in the Trial of the Century in the Jefferson designed Capitol of Virginia, with Chief Justice John Marshall presiding over the trial, the Trial Jurors found Aaron Burr, NOT GUILTY. In late 2014, the Grand Jury in America returned to the minds of Americans, and came under scrutiny with accusations of racism because a Grand Jury in Ferguson, Missouri, and another Grand Jury in New York, made decisions that served as a Shield for Police Officers accused of killing black men in the process of being arrested. Even Washington Post Writer Ruth Marcus in her November 25, 2014 Opinion stated, The St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of teenager Michael Brown was the worst possible outcome — except for one in which passion overwhelmed facts and Wilson was forced to stand trial despite a lack of adequate evidence. and later, Yet the decision before the grand jury involved a single incident, discrete facts about the encounter, and a criminal justice system properly focused not on the broader societal implications of the episode but on the two individuals involved, the shooter and the victim. [10] The New York Grand Jury on the Garner case and others such as the one in Morgantown, West Virginia in a May 2013 slaying of a peaceful black man Wayne Jones shot 23 times by five policemen [11] justify the scrutiny of the Citizens, but more on what is presented to the Grand Jurors, than any question of the integrity of the Grand Jury process. The Ferguson Grand Jury did its duty as a Shield against public passions or forces in the federal government demanding an indictment. However, if investigative reporters or other investigators determine that Saint Louis (Missouri) County prosecutor Robert McCulloch omitted from presentation to the Grand Jurors relevant facts or proper interpretations of the law, there is no double jeopardy barrier to another Grand Jury considering the issue, as established by the President Jefferson versus former Vice President Aaron Burr presenting a Bill of Indictment before many a Grand Jury. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_jury
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 01:38:43 +0000
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