Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-11-18
Charge of Chief-Justice Richie 10 the
Grand Jury.


Gentlemen Of the Grand Jury:
The law imposes on YOU most important
duties. Upon their faithful discharge large
ly depend the peace, order and safety of So
ciety. That you may effectually perform
these duties, you are vested with extensive
powers, and entrusted with exceptional
modes of procedure. No official is SO high,
no citizen so great, that he is exempt from
your investigation, if charged with crime,
or, if believed guilty, can resist your ar
raignment Chief among your high pre-
negatives is that of conducting your in
quiries in secret, and in the absence of the
accused. This peculiar power, while in
valuable if rightly matchmaking you to
cope with offenders who otherwise might
evade or defy the law, and securing to the
weak redress from aggressors whose superior
resources might otherwise silence or intimi-
date them, becomes most dangerous and OPP
pressive when not scrupulously exercised.
The facility it affords the timid and humble
to make known their complaints may be
taken advantage of by the malicious to wreak
their private resentments, and is even, at
times, awaited of by persons having no
higher motive than petty greed for the
witness fees incidental to prosecution. See
TO it, then, that this extraordinary power,
lodged in your hands solely for the public
good, is not perverted to an engine of OPP
preston.
The law is designed to be a protector and
not tyrant And its processes should be
SO conducted that none but actual offenders
should fear its operations. Much depends
upon the sound judgment and careful spirit
with which you may WELD the agencies
placed at your disposal. Look at the cases
brought before you with natural eyes, and
not through microscopic glasses. While you
are diligently to inquire" into all supposed
violations of the law, and are impartially
and courageously to bring to trial all whose
guilt the evidence makes probable, bear in
mind that the spirit Of the law is not narrow
or vengeful, and seeks to inflict its penalties
on real and not technical offenders. 1t is
beittled and prostituted when invoked for
trivial iniractions without genuine sub
stance, or is made the instrument of mere
personal spite or petty avarice Remember
in all your proceedings that you are dealing
with the reputation and liberties of your
fellow citizens, and should not lightly put
man upon his trial. 1t is no equivalent for
the notoriety, pain and expense consequent
upon an ill-judged or hasty indictment, to
be declared, after trial before Petit Jury,
not guilty. Subject no man to such an
ordeal, but after full consideration and strong
impression of his guilt. Indeed, the value
of the Grand Jury to the public lies as well
in the fact that it is the appointed barrier
TO groundess and malicious prosecutions, as
that it is the established medium of present
ment for real cause. Its power should be
eXerted AS watchiully to save the citizen
from the assaults of malice, as to ferret out
and arraign actual violators of the law. Look
with scrutiny, therefore, into all charges laid
before you, and especially those where the
party claiming to be aggrieved has had am
pie opportunity in advance of your sitting,
to prefer his complaint before a Justice of
the Peace, where the accused could have
faced his prosecutor, and had the benefit of
preliminary hearing.
Upon the vigor and fairness with which
you discharge your duty primarily depends
the efficacy of the law. Your hand holds
the lever that sets in motion the machinery
of actual prosecution. The Bench and Petit
jury are powerless to act until you first
point out how and against whom they shall
proceed. Your office performed, and then
upon the other departments of the Court
rests the responsibility of determining the
guilt or innocence of the accused. By our
united and conscientious action, justice, so
far as imperfections in the law itself and the
errors of human judgment will admit, can
be speedily and impartially administered
Promptness and efficiency of procedure can
remove many of the Saws delays" which
SO often disappoint just public expectation,
weaken the confidence of the people in the
adequacy of legal tribunals to redress their
wrongs, and furnish plausible, if not suf-
ficient, excuse for those fierce and sudden
infections of popular vengence into which
men are sometimes swept by outrages of
exceptional atrocity which they fear through
the uncertainty and tardinese of Court nro-
ceedings, may escape their just punishment
Let not such a reproach upon the law prove
well-iounded through any supineness of our
own SO far as lies in our power let us take
care that the law be found so effective to
shield the sanctity of home and the valued
rights of person and property, that no man
shall feel driven to be his own avenger.
In addition to its general charge, it is
made the duty of the Court by the Legisla-
ture to call your attention to certain Acts of
Assembly aimed at offences deserving spe-
cial consideration. These are the statutes
relating to Abortion and Defaulting Officers.
They Will be readily found in the copy of
the Revised Code which will be placed in
your hands, though it is hoped you will find
no violations of them in this county.
In conclusion the Court would urge you
to dispatch your business and close your
session as promptly as thorough discharge
of your duties will permit This is due to
the public, who must defray the expenses of
the administration of justice. The States
Attorney will cheerlully assist you in this
respect, and, as your legal adviser, counsel
you upon the law when desired. Also, when
necessary, the power of this Court may be
called to your aid.
You may now, gentlemen, retire to your
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