Opinion ID: 444351
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Secrecy of Grand Jury Testimony

Text: Defendants claim that a promise that the grand jury testimony would not be made public was an inducement that should have been disclosed. Specifically, the witness stated on cross-examination that he believed that the conspirators against whom he testified would not be privy to the information he disclosed to the grand jury. Apparently, this impression arose out of a discussion with the Louisiana Assistant United States Attorney about Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) which generally provides that no one shall disclose matters occurring before the grand jury except to government attorneys for use in the performance of such attorney's duty or upon order of the court. Obviously, a government attorney's explanation of the Rules of Criminal Procedure to a witness does not constitute an inducement known to the prosecutor but unknown to the defense within the scope of the Brady disclosure rule. Agurs, 427 U.S. at 97, 96 S.Ct. at 2392.