Court Opinion

ID: 9431401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:13.563008+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:28.333714
License: Public Domain

Justice Marshall,
dissenting.
I cannot concur in the Court’s decision to apply harmless-error analysis to violations of Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. I already have outlined my objections to the Court’s approach, which converts “Congress’ command regarding the proper conduct of grand jury proceedings to a mere form of words, without practical effect.” United States v. Mechanik, 475 U. S. 66, 84 (1986) (Marshall, J., dissenting). Because of the strict protection of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, instances of prosecutorial misconduct rarely come to light. This is especially true in the pretrial setting, because defendants’ chief source of information about grand jury proceedings is governmental disclosures under the Jencks Act, 18 U. S. C. §3500, which do not *265occur until trial is underway. The fact that a prosecutor knows that a Rule 6 violation is unlikely to be discovered gives the Rule little enough bite. To afford the occasional revelation of prosecutorial misconduct the additional insulation of harmless-error analysis leaves Rule 6 toothless. Moreover, as I argued in Mechanik, in this context “[a]ny case-by-case analysis to determine whether the defendant was actually prejudiced is simply too speculative to afford defendants meaningful protection, and imposes a difficult burden on the courts that outweighs the benefits to be derived.” 475 U. S., at 86. Given the nature of grand jury proceedings, Rule 6 violations can be deterred and redressed effectively only by a per se rule of dismissal. Today’s decision reduces Rule 6 to little more than a code of honor that prosecutors can violate with virtual impunity. I respectfully dissent.