The Grand Jury
| Jurisdiction | United States,Federal,Colorado |
| Citation | Vol. 9 No. 10 Pg. 2116 |
| Pages | 2116 |
| Publication year | 1980 |
1980, October, Pg. 2116. The Grand Jury
2116
A defendant accused of a felony under federal law has a constitutional right to indictment by the grand jury. However, a 1976 Library of Congress study shows that twenty-nine states authorize prosecution either by indictment or information (for non-capital offenses). In the remaining twenty-one jurisdictions, prosecution by grand jury indictment is a right afforded those accused of serious crimes.
In Denver, the grand jury is used in cases where the subpoena power is necessary to a thorough investigation in complex, public corruption and organized crime investigations.
Colorado was one of the first states to enact a reform law,(fn1) which became effective without the signature of the Governor in July 1977. Virtually all of the twenty-five reform principles advocated by the American Bar Association (ABA) are incorporated into the Colorado statute, except that the virtual prohibition of reports (discussed below) contained in the Colorado statute is contrary to an ABA grand jury reform priniciple.
The ABA Grand Jury Committee has recommended three additional principles. Proposed Principle 26, already essentially included in § 16-5-204(4)(c), recommends that no prosecutor should call before the grand jury any witness who has stated personally or through his attorney that he intends to invoke his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. Proposed Principle 27 simply recommends that the grand jury be informed as to the elements of the crimes considered by it. This, in practice, is done in Denver, but is not specifically required by statute.
Proposed Principle 28 would prohibit finding of a witness in contempt for refusal to testify before a grand jury unless the witness is provided an opportunity to explain to the grand jury his refusal to testify and the grand jury thereafter recommends to the court that the witness be found in contempt. Principles 26, 27 and 28 were adopted by the ABA House of Delegates at the annual meeting held in Hawaii in August 1980.
Under § 16-5-204(4)(a), at the option of the prosecutor, a grand jury subpoena may contain an advisement of rights. All Denver grand jury subpoenas contain that notice. Failure to include the notice can be fatal to an indictment because § 16-5-204(4)(d) provides that a witness who is not advised of his rights pursuant to (4) (a) has transactional immunity if he testifies without that advisement.
A 1978 grand jury in Arapahoe County returned an indictment where the defendant was given an advisement of rights orally before he testified, but the subpoena used by a prosecutor from the Organized Crime Strike Force did not...
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