Opinion ID: 1340447
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Impact of Section 14-7-1770

Text: Section 14-7-1770 provides that [r]ecords, orders, and subpoenas relating to state grand jury proceedings must be kept under seal to the extent and for that time as is necessary to prevent disclosure of matters occurring before a state grand jury  (emphasis added). The clerk of the state grand jury relied in part on this provision in refusing to produce the impanelment documents in the present case. The terms of the statute do not impose a complete prohibition on the release of impanelment documents or other records, such that they must remain secret forever. The emphasized language indicates that, at some point in cases in which the grand jury returns a true bill of indictment, matters other than the grand jury's deliberations and voting may be disclosed to a defendant. Removing the veil of secrecy after a defendant has been indicted is consistent with the legislative intent expressed in Section 14-7-1770 and the Act as a whole. E.g., Ray Bell Constr. Co. v. School Dist. of Greenville County, 331 S.C. 19, 501 S.E.2d 725 (1998) ([a]ll rules of statutory construction are subservient to the one that the legislative intent must prevail if it can be reasonably discovered in the language used, and that language must be construed in light of the intended purpose of the statute).