Court Opinion

ID: 9476438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:56:14.379856+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:19.423710
License: Public Domain

ENSLEN, District Judge,
concurring.
In light of the applicable Sixth Circuit precedent on the grand jury issue, I join in Judge Nelson’s opinion. I write separately only to express my strong displeasure about the manner in which the Assistant United States Attorney presented the government’s evidence against the appellant to the grand jury. The grand jury’s function is to determine “whether there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed” and to protect “citizens against unfounded criminal prosecutions.” United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 343, 94 S.Ct. 613, 617, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974). To fulfill this function, a grand jury is empow*1002ered to conduct a wide-ranging, ex parte investigation into the case before it. As the Supreme Court has stated, “ ‘[i]t is a grand inquest, a body with powers of investigation and inquisition, the scope of whose inquiries is not to be limited narrowly by questions of propriety or forecasts of the probable result of the investigation, or by doubts whether any particular individual will be found properly subject to an accusation of crime.’ ” Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665, 688, 92 S.Ct. 2646, 33 L.Ed.2d 626 (1972) (quoting Blair v. United States, 250 U.S. 273, 282, 39 S.Ct. 468, 471, 63 L.Ed. 979 (1919)).
Ironically, in this case the government apparently attempted to limit, not expand, the information presented to the grand jury that indicted the appellant. The primary evidence the government presented to the grand jury was the testimony of a government agent who basically repeated the allegations contained in the indictment, supplying the sources of the allegations and, occasionally, supporting details. I believe that the method by which the government presented its case to the grand jury denigrates the role of the grand jury and prevents the grand jury from fulfilling its historical and constitutionally established function. I fully agree with Judge Nelson that any future cases of abuse of the grand jury system in the Eastern District of Michigan may justify this Circuit’s exercise of its supervisory power to ensure that the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan properly employs the grand jury system.