Opinion ID: 2372644
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Did the State's Failure to Present Certain Letters Written to the Defendant by the Victim Invalidate the Indictment?

Text: In April 1979, approximately five months before the alleged sexual assault, Christina wrote two letters to defendant, both of which might be characterized as expressions of enduring love. Prior to consideration of the case by the grand jury, counsel for defendant requested that these letters be presented by the prosecutor at the time the grand jury considered the case. Apparently, the assistant attorneys general who were first contacted promised to do so. One of them instructed representatives of the Woonsocket police to present the letters at the time that the grand jury would hear the case. For some unknown reason the Woonsocket police did not obtain the letters. The case was presented by an assistant attorney general who was unaware of the promise, and therefore the grand jurors did not have these letters presented to them. As a result of this omission, defendant moved to dismiss the indictment, claiming that these letters were exculpatory and tended to show bias against defendant. A justice of the Superior Court denied the motion, observing that the letters were not exculpatory but merely suggested a relationship or a feeling of the victim toward defendant and that the prosecution was under no duty to present such evidence to the grand jury. In Rhode Island it has traditionally been the function of the grand jury to decide whether the evidence presented to it, unexplained and uncontradicted, gives rise to a sufficient quantum of proof to warrant the return of a formal accusation of crime. A grand jury proceeding is not a trial and is not bound by the rules of evidence that apply to an adversary hearing. See United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974). The Supreme Court of the United States has consistently refused to pass upon the adequacy or competence of evidence presented to the grand jury. In Costello v. United States, 350 U.S. 359, 76 S.Ct. 406, 100 L.Ed. 397 (1956), an indictment was sought to be quashed because the evidence presented to the grand jury consisted entirely of hearsay statements by government witnesses. In passing upon this challenge, Mr. Justice Black observed: If indictments were to be held open to challenge on the ground that there was inadequate or incompetent evidence before the grand jury, the resulting delay would be great indeed. The result of such a rule would be that before trial on the merits a defendant could always insist on a kind of preliminary trial to determine the competency and adequacy of the evidence before the grand jury. This is not required by the Fifth Amendment. An indictment returned by a legally constituted and unbiased grand jury, like an information drawn by the prosecutor, if valid on its face, is enough to call for trial of the charge on the merits. The Fifth Amendment requires nothing more. Id. at 363, 76 S.Ct. at 408-09, 100 L.Ed. at 402-03. The court went on to decline to exercise its supervisory power to establish a rule permitting defendants to challenge indictments on the ground that they are not supported by adequate or competent evidence. Justice Black suggested that such a rule would run counter to the whole history of the grand jury institution in which laymen conduct their inquiries unfettered by technical rules. Although some federal courts of appeal have chosen to exercise supervisory power to scrutinize the nature and quality of evidence presented to the grand jury, see, e.g., United States v. Chanen, 549 F.2d 1306 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 825, 98 S.Ct. 72, 54 L.Ed.2d 83 (1977); United States v. Leibowitz, 420 F.2d 39 (2d Cir.1969), we are of the opinion that the better rule is that enunciated by the Supreme Court in Costello, supra, and followed in Lawn v. United States, 355 U.S. 339, 78 S.Ct. 311, 2 L.Ed.2d 321 (1958), and United States v. Blue, 384 U.S. 251, 86 S.Ct. 1416, 16 L.Ed.2d 510 (1966). Consequently, assuming, without deciding, that the letters in question tended to be exculpatory, [1] we believe that the failure to present these letters did not constitute cause to invalidate the indictment. We therefore conclude that the justice of the Superior Court did not err in declining to dismiss the indictment on the ground of failure to present the letters in question.