St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-24
THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM.

Notwithstanding the objection to the
grand jury system, on account of the Sc
crecy of its work. it is recognized as pub
lie necessity. The duty of grand jury is
to investigate cases of supposed crime and
10 bring to the attention Of the court any
public wrongs they think should be brought
20 its notice. Grand jury men are allowed
10 exercise wide liberty in this respect,
because, as a police and detective body,
they are expected to be informed
Of all violations of law and vicious
conduct of citizens that occur in
the community. While. as a general propo-
sition, secret investigations in the nature of
star-chamber proceedings are offensive to
the American mind, still the peculiar du-
ties to be discharged by grand jury re-
luire absolute secrecy. When a crime has
been committed, and, after an investigation
of it, a grand jury reports to the court the
name of the party whom it has reasons to
believe is the criminal, then it becomes all
the more important for the protection of
the public that secrecy should be observed
until the supposed offender has been
arrested and brought before the
court to answer the Indictment that
has been, Or is to be, found against him.
Therefore secrecy is an almost sacred duty
in the discharge of a grand jury's work.
Another equally sacred duty of a grand
juror is to observe that part of his oath
which requires of him to perform his work
without fear, favor or affection. 1t is a
prostitution of very high power when a
ifc 10 hai pfr
by personal or political considerations in
the discharge of his delicate task. 1t
is probably because that there is a
great deal of human nature in mankind, as
a certain facetious philosopher once eX-
pressed it, that men carry their personal
feelings and political prejudices into the
grand jury room. That they do so very
often is a lamentable fact, and the fact that
they do is what has brought the grand jury
system into disrepute. The secrecy which
attaches to the labors of grand jury gives
the members an excellent opportunity to do
good deal of shenanigan work in the way
of giving vent to personal malice or to
fixing up jobs for political purposes. This
crooked work is manifested as frequently
by what grand Jury fails to do as by
what is done. For instance they will get
into the investigation of a case and when
it is found that certain personal or political
friends of the members of the body are
likely to be involved the matter Is hushed
up. Or as it sometimes occurs, when
batch of offenders are being investigated
a few will be picked out for
prosecution and the grand jury will
decline to hear evidence against
the others. That such instances
have occurred is known of all men who are
at all familiar with grand jury work. And
there are those who allege that just such
work was done by grand jury in the not
very remote past. 1t is singularly unfortu-
nate that such impressions get abroad, and
still more unfortunate that there should be
found evidence to confirm the correctness
OF these impressions. The grand jury sys-
tenn is the public's reliance for protection
against crime. And when public confidence
in that system is shaken by the betrayal of
one grand jury of its high and sacred trust
itamounts to a public calamity.