The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-05-05
GRAND JURY
SYSTEM
IS WRONG
Robinson Opens a
New Term of
Court.

Judge Robinson in a strong charge
to the grand jury for the May Term of
court, which opened yesterday, pointed
out the many defects in the present
grand jury system. He charged the
jury, however, that it would have to
investigate all felones as prescribed by
the Constitution. saying that these
We're crimes in which the punishment
exceeded one years imprisonment.
The charge was in part as follows:
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury:
All that has thus far been said or
published concerning the grand jury
system has been of praise, because of
its alleged benefits and strenuously as
serted advantages, and it would be of
little avail for me at this time, alone
and unsupported by precept or prece-
dent, to call attention to it's many dis
advantages and absurdities. The costly.
cumbersome and dilatory nature of the
entire grand jury system and it's
doubtful utility. as a means of protec-
tion to the citizens of a State from I'M
inal charges-in view of the protection
afforded by the right of trial by jury
and the writ of habeas corpus-as well
as the partial character of it's investi-
gatiens in hearing only and arriving
at q conclusion solely upon the testi-
mony of those who are interested, or
who are likely to be interested, in Sc
curing the indictment of persons charg-
ed with public offenSes, seem to have
been lost sight of in the halo of glory
which surrounds the system like the
luminous eXhalation which hovers over
the last resting place of some dear de-
parted. as a necessary incident to a
relic of antiquity, once quick, now
dead, but not yet reduced to it's native
dust.
Judge Robinson further instructed
the jury that it was its right to investi-
gate Territorial Institutions, but that
the practice which has obtained in this
jurisdiction, to some extent, for each
successive grand jury to investigate
public institutions, under Territorial
control, situated on this circuit, against
the officers or employees of which there
has been directed no charge or suspi-
cion of mismanagement'o or malfeasance
in office is as useless and absurd as it is
condemned. The expense incident to
each days session of grand jury is
considerable and each day unnecessar-
lily employed in inquiring into a trifling !
offense, alleged to have been committed |
or into the management of a public in |
stitution against the officers or en- |
ployees of which there has been direct |
ed no charge or suspicion of misman- |
agement or malfeasance in office, i'm |
poses useless expense and an unnec- |
essary financial burden upon the tax
payers of this Territory.
The court also advised the jury that |
there will be no necessity for investi- |
eating misdemeanors, as the law had |
been changed by the legislature. A. w. |
Pearson was appointed as foreman and |
VIM. Tell as baiiff to the grand jury, |
which began work Immediately.
The much-lauded grand jury system |
became engrafted upon the Consttu-
ton of the United States by the fifth
amendment Zone of the ten original !
amendments engrafted at the same
time) at a session of the first Congress
of the United States in 1883, but it is
doubtful If such an amendment We're
presented for the first time to the Fiji
ty-eighth Congress it would obtain suf-
ficient support to secure its ratifica-
ton.
/ venture to express the hope, how
ever, that with the greater develop
ment of reason and logic, all provisions
in support of this system will be elm
mated from the national and State con-
situations in the same manner and to
the same extent as are now being elm
mated in some of the States those 9TH
err anachronisms, terms of court and
Janus-faced courts of justice. with dis
tinct and sharply defined law and equi-
ty sides to the same court.
The Fifth Amendment to the Consti-
tuition of the United States provides
that mo person shall be held to a cap
ital or otherwise infamous crime, I'M
less on presentment or indictment of a
grand jury, except in cases arising in
the land or naval forces, or in the mill
tia, when in actual service in time of
war or public danger" and it is in ODE
dience to this mandate of our national
that you have been sum- |
moned before this court to serve and
act as grand jurors and to constitute
grand jury in this circuit at the pres
ent term of this court.
Hawaiian Stocks.