Opinion ID: 2615180
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: selection of the special grand jury

Text: We allowed review limited to the grand jury selection procedure and, consequently, a discussion of the facts involved in the offenses is unnecessary. Defendant was the Marion County District Attorney from 1965 until his conviction. Following an investigation by Oregon's Attorney General, a special grand jury was empaneled in Marion County to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by the defendant largely occurring under the guise of his official position as district attorney. The special grand jury returned indictments which resulted in defendant's conviction. The Court of Appeals found [t]he method of selecting this grand jury violated Article VII [Amended], Section 5(2), and the trial court erred in failing to quash the indictment. State v. Gortmaker, 60 Or. App. 723, 736, 655 P.2d 575 (1982). However, the Court of Appeals upheld the defendant's conviction because the error has not affected the fact-finding process and he was not prejudiced. Id. at 740, 655 P.2d 575. Marion County is not unlike several Oregon counties which found it efficient to employ professional managers to administer the court's business. These court administrators [14] have had wide-ranging duties and responsibilities and accordingly were afforded some discretion to successfully accomplish their managerial tasks. The Marion County Court Administrator, among various other duties, was delegated by the circuit court the responsibility for summoning persons to serve on the county's grand and petit juries. Concurrent with this delegation of responsibility was a delegation of authority to make decisions regarding the process that would be used for the summoning of the jurors. In January, 1980, the Marion County Court Administrator summoned 250 persons pursuant to ORS 10.110, infra, for service on the jury panel of both the district and circuit courts for Marion County. Approximately 70 to 95 actually reported for jury duty. The court administrator testified those excused from duty were excused for various reasons either by circuit or district court judges or by court administrative staff. [15] Although the normal term of jury duty in Marion County is two months, this particular jury panel was extended by court order for four months in an effort to relieve the county of financial constraints. Some of the original 70 to 95 jurors were excused from further duty after having served four weeks, see ORS 10.050(3). [16] Some members were temporarily excused for personal reasons by a judge or court staff members. The court administrator testified she received instructions from a circuit court judge to summon jurors for a special grand jury to hear evidence in the defendant's case. On May 21, 1980, the court administrator drew by lot the names of 10 prospective jurors for the special grand jury from all the original jurors remaining for jury duty known to be available for duty commencing May 27. [17] None of the jurors was physically present at the court during this selection. The selection was supervised by a circuit court judge. Of the 10 jurors selected by lot, five either could not be reached by the court staff or indicated that they would be unavailable for duty on May 27. The court administrator excused these five jurors. On May 22, 1980, a court clerk selected four more jurors by lot from the initial group. Again, none of the jurors was physically present at the court at the time of the selection, and this selection was also supervised by a circuit court judge. The actual selection of the grand jury was to be made the following Tuesday, May 27, 1980. On Friday, May 23, 1980, the court clerk responsible for calling prospective petit jurors was told that juries for two district court cases would be needed the following Tuesday, May 27, 1980. (Monday, May 26, 1980, was a holiday.) By this time the number of regular jurors available for service, for unexplained reasons, had been reduced to some 30 to 40 jurors. The names were on a list. After calling the first 25 of the 30 to 40 persons whose names were on the list, the clerk was able to reach 18, who were requested to appear for jury duty the following Tuesday. Seventeen showed up on Tuesday. On Tuesday, May 27, eight of the nine jurors selected on May 21-22, 1983, reported for duty. Two were excused by a circuit court judge after the court's voir dire. Finding it necessary to select one additional juror to complete the special grand jury, and an alternate, a judge's secretary obtained the names of the 17 jurors who had been called (as petit jurors) to hear district court cases, and from these 17 jurors the final grand juror was drawn by lot. These 17 jurors were physically present at the court during the selection which was supervised by a circuit court judge.