The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-05-10
Official Press of King County.
Friday, May 10, 1878.
THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM

AS general rule people are 10th to
depart from the ancient established
ways, or to sacrifice institutions rem
dered venerable by the lapse of ages,
and yet as the world progresses old
ideas and customs are of necessity up
rooted. and give place to new ideas and
methods, born of experience and de-
manded by the exigencies of the times.
Each revolution of the wheel of pro-
gress marks the obliteration of ancient
monuments of human thought and
labor, and the improvement and simply
fication OF the mechanism of human
affairs.
Since the Constitutions of Clare ndon
enacted 10, Henry ii, A. ID. ll64, the
grand jury has been regarded by all
subjects of English laws as a necessary
concomitant of the courts of criminal
jurisdiction. With but little to recon-
institution, which If il were a modern
invention would not be tolerated, is re-
garded with reverence and devotion by
Americans so much so, that in the bill
of rights as Incorporated in the Consti-
tutions of the United States, and most
Of the states, it is provided that "no
person shall be held to answer for a
capital or otherwise Infamous crime,
unless on q presentment or indictment
of . grand jury.
This institution, however, venera:ed
as it is, is destined ere long to be swept
away aud its place supplied with less
cumbersome, less expensive, and more
civilized methods of inquiry. Already
it has been practically abolished in
Michigan. Wisconsin and Kansas, and
ia those States experience has demon
strsted that the machinery of govern
ment can be made to work very we'll,
and individual rights be amply pro-
tected without this relic of the feudal
ages.
In our own Territory, with our four
teen District Courts as at present or
gained. the expense to the payers of
the Grand Jury is not less than fifteen
thousand dollars per annum. This we
must bear as long as We remain Ter
ritory but if the Constitutional Con-
vention to meet next month will adopt
modern ideas this much expense can
be saved.
In conclusion we append letter on
this subject from Hon. Thomas NJ.
Cooley, the eminent jurist and author,
to member of the bar of this city, than
which no ADLER argument can be en-
comprised within the same space:
ANN ARBoR, Mich,
April 90, 1878.
THOMAS BURKE, ESQ,
AHAn Jan - w not remember
that anything written by me on the
subject Of the Grand Jury has been
published. have replied to several
letters similar to yours, and possibly
some one Of them may have been pub
lished without my attention being call.
ed to the fact.
Under the system which prevails in
ne
examined before a magistrate, ard if
the offense is one the magistrate cannot
try, and cause appears for holding the
accused to trial, the magistrate either
holds him to bail or commits him to
Jail. and the prosecuting attorney files
an information against him, on which
he is arraignea and tried in the Circuit
Court. The information is in substance
the same as an indictment, aud the
prosecuting attorney is not permitted
to file it until the preliminary examina-
tion has taken place
Our statutes, however, permit the
Circuit Judge to order a grand Jury if
he shall think proper. and there have
been three or four instances in the State
in the last thirty years of such an order
being made. A grand jury is now in
session in one county, being summoned
to investigate q conspiracy supposed to
involve number of prominent citizens.
think 1t very well that such power
should exist; but judging from the ex-
perience of this State, should expect
it to be seldom or never invoked. The
practical abolition of the grand jury
system in this State has worked very
satisfactorily. II has saved large ex-
penses. and has sometimes saved inuo-
cent persons from the disgrace of an
accusation Of crime which would never
have been made had the preliminary
investigation been public.
Very respectfully. YOURS.