The American Grand Jury — Due Process or Rights Regress?
| Author | James Halsted |
| DOI | 10.1177/088740348700200201 |
| Published date | 01 June 1987 |
| Date | 01 June 1987 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
103
The
American
Grand
Jury —
Due
Process
or
Rights
Regress?
James
Halsted
University
of
South
Florida
Abstract
The
grand
jury
system
and
due
process
rights
generally
are
recognized
as
two
of
the
great
"checks"
in
protecting
private
citizens
from
the
inherent
dangers
that
may
exist
should
the
executive
branch
of
the
government
be
tempted
to
use
the
criminal
justice
system
as
a
vehicle for
its
own
political
purposes.
These
historical
checks,
however,
seem
to
have
dissolved
in
present
practices
and
procedures
implemented
by
federal
prosecutors
in
their
investigations
of
public
officials.
A
paradigm
example
of
this
is
the
grand
jury
investigation
of
Walter
L.
Nixon,
Jr.,
United
States
District
Judge
for
the
Southern
District
of
Mississippi.
Nixon
was
convicted
of
two
counts
of
perjury
for
lying
to
a
grand
jury.
This
author
was
present
throughout
the
entire
Nixon
trial.
Copious
notes
were
taken
and
verified
by
cross-checking
them
with
the
trial
transcript.
What
Nixon’s
case
dramatizes
is
the
fundamental
problems
inherent
within
the
grand
jury
system:
specifically,
that
prosecutors
have
the
power
to
use
the
federal
grand
jury
system
to
deny
systematically
grand
jury
targets
their
usual
due
process
rights
and
then
to
subject
them
to
criminal
liability
for
perjury
which
is
manufactured
only
because
the
targets
are
processed
through
the
grand
jury
process
itself.
A
subtle
paradox
exists
among
certain
rights
and
privileges
of
an
accused
within
the
American
criminal
justice
system.
The
federal
grand
jury
system,
believed
to
act
as
a
&dquo;buffer&dquo;
between
an
accused
and
an
overzealous
prosecutor,
and
Constitutional
due
process
rights,
which
should
insure
that
the
accused
receives
fundamental
fairness
during
all
critical
stages
of
the
prosecution
against
him,
are
canceling
each
other
out.
The
grand
jury
system
and
due
process
rights
generally
are
recognized
as
two
of
the
great
&dquo;checks&dquo;
in
protecting
private
citizens
from
the
inherent
dangers
that
may
exist
should
the
executive
branch
of
the
government
be
tempted
to
use
the
criminal
justice
system
as
a
vehicle
for
its
own
political
purposes.
These
historical
checks,
however,
seem
to
have
dissolved
in
present
practices
and
procedures
implemented
by
federal
prosecutors
in
their
investigations
of
public
officials.
Federal
prosecutors
have
the
power
to
use
the
federal
grand
jury
system
to
deny
systematically
grand
jury
targets
their
usual
due
process
rights,
and
then
to
subject
them
to
criminal
liability
for
CJPR,
VOL.
2,
NO. 2,
6/87,
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