Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-06-03
REFORMS NEEDED !.
IN GRAND JURY
WITNESS METHODS
Men and Women Summoned Be-
fore Inquisitors Are SUBJ
iected to Great H%ardships.

There is real need of reformation IN
grand jury methods of handling VIII
nesses summoned before it to give tesu-
mony in cases pending before the IN
QUESTION.
At present all and SUI
poenas to appear before the grand
Jury call for the presence Of the per-
son summoned at 3 o'clock. At that
time the WI small, stuffy rooms usea
as waiting-rooms for grand jury VII
nesses are crowded to suffocation anu
In many cases witnesses, both maze
and female, are forced to stand around
the corridors of the Court House for
two hours or more.
The grand jury sessions start at .
o'clock on the days 1t meets and the
average length of each session is about
two hours and a half.
Thus It can readily be seen that some
of the witnesses who are forced TO pc
on hand at 3 o'clock must walt around
the Court House all the way from one
TO sometimes three hours before they
are called before that body.
T1ns works hardship in many ways.
Parsons summoned before the grand
Jury receive no fees of any kind. a
great many of the witnesses called are
laborfng men who have to lose their
wages as well as time for the period
spent in attendance before he grand
Jury. Frequently a witness will walt
in the ante-room for more than two
hours before being called into the
grand jury room. where they will spend
sometimes less thai two minutes before
that body.
Badness Men Demand Remedy.
And Just as frequently witnesses who
have baen summoned will impatiently
cool their heels in the cramped walt
tng-room for a couple of hours, only TO
have the door of the grand jury room
open and the officer in charge bawl out:
witnesses Smith, Jones, Brown ana
Green are excused until tomorrow AFT
ernopn when they will again appear
here at 3 o'clock without further
notice"
Many . business man has had thai
experiance with grand juries and Il
would appear that some remedy should
be devised. The present system OF
calling all witnesses for a specified
times o'c1ock-and then allowing
thsm to wait the pleasure Of the grand
dury7nen IS all wrong.
Witnesses should be called for differ
ent specified times and arrangements
made by the officers in charge OF the
grand Jury to have the cases come up
in such order that unnecessary waiting
DO avoided.
rhine wasted ana Money Lost.
At tho present time hours Of time
valuable to business men n hours OF
timo and wages are lost by working
men In wHlting the pleasure of grand
durfes by the arbitrary method of re-
curing ali witnesses to be present at
the grand Jury room at 8 o'clock.
Witnesses get there On time and are
then herded in like a flock of sheep in
q small, stuffy room. Women, many
Of them with babes In arms, are forced
to sit for hours in stiff s~traight-back
wooden chairs. Neither male nor fe-
male witnesses dare leave the doors
of the grand jury room for fear they
will be called next.
II they do stray a few feet away
they are liable to hear their name
yelled-shrieked would be the better
expression-and when they hurry to
the door of the grand jury room be
greeted with a gruff. surly why don
you stay around here where you should
be instead Of roaming all over the
building?"
Oh, yes, the present grand jury sys-
tenn of handling witnesses is all right,
hut not for enlightened America. II
savors more Of Russian methods. The
proper officials should get busy at once
nnd do some reforming that will result
In witnesses being treated like human
beings instead of inanimate objects as
Mt present.