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5 Panel 1 (1927)

handle is hein.journals/panelmbu5 and id is 1 raw text is: Th PANEL MONTHLY BULLETIN OF THE ASSOCIATION OF GRAND JURORS, NEW YORK COUNTY VOL. S JANUARY, 1927 NO. 1 AB INITIO The beginning of the New Year is the proper time to start things moving so that by its end, if during the interim a cumula- tive force has been continuously applied to them, they will have gone some distance. A great opportunity is being presented by the Association of Grand Jurors to the Grand Jurors of New York County, a majority of whom are now its members, who have been long suffering patiently under an outworn, cumbersome and inefficient system of pro- cedure which, a relic of the distant past, they have not been able to slough off on account of their statutory limitations. We have studied the Grand Jury system in effect in other States and considered the rec- ommendations for improvements, made by the National Crime Commission and the Crime Commission of this and other States, and in accordance with them and the sugges- tions of some of our Judges and our District Attorney we are preparing to improve our procedure here so that it will meet efficiently the increasing requirements of the growing cosmopolitan population of the County. So let us see where we stand and then start at the beginning. The Board for the Selection of Grand Jurors is composed of the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department, the Mayor of the City of New York, who is elected by its citizens-these two are continued as mem- bers of the Board as long as they hold their respective positions on the Bench and as head of the City Government-an Associate Jus- tice of the aforesaid Appellate Division, des- ignated each year by the resident members of that Division, and two Judges of the Court of General Sessions, designated each year by that Court. The members of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Governor, those of the General Sessions Court are elected by the people of the County. The Pre- siding Justice is the Chairman. Three mem- bers constitute a quorum. The Commis- sioner of Jurors, who is not a member of the Board, is appointed by it and acts as its clerk while it functions from the last Monday in November for fifteen days. His other duties, consisting of the monthly drawing of Petit and Grand Jurors and keeping in- formed regarding them, are continuous throughout the year. The Board is responsi- ble to nobody. Early in the summer we began our efforts to have this Board increase both the number 1927 GREETING to all Grand Jurors, our other members and readers Program of Major Projects for the Year 1-Modernize our Grand Jury Sys- tem. 2-Install microphones and amplifiers in Grand Jury rooms. 3-Start building new Classification Center and Industrial plant on Riker Island and Removal of Prisons from Welfare and Hart Islands. 4-Improve conditions in District Prisons. 5-Extend Jefferson Market Prison. 6-Reduce Bail Bond abuses. 7-Amplify Central Bureau of Rec- ords. 8-Have Courts report dispositions of cases to Police daily. 9-Curb traffic in Stolen Property. 10-Lessen the Crooked Lawyer evil in courts and about prisons and police stations. To carry out this program we need the support of the full Grand Jury Panel, both sentimentally and financially. We need a permanent headquarters, a paid Secretary, a Research expert, a typewriter and file clerk. This will entail an annual budget of $10,000. It remains to be seen if the Grand Jurors of New York County are to remain longer supine to the dictatorship of the Court, District Attorney and criminal law- yer, or if they shall assume the task of re- establishing the Grand Jury as it originally was and still should be The Grand Inquisi- torial Body of the County. and quality of the Grand Jurors. The PANEL carried references to those efforts in each subsequent issue. We pointed out to the Clerk and to the Board, either in person or in writing, that owing to the small number of 1370 Grand Jurors on the Grand Jury Panel several had had to serve twice in the year. Also that oftentimes, especially during the summer when the exodus of people from the City on vacations is great, Sitting Panels are undermanned causing great inconvenience to their members, the Court and the District Attorney. We requested an increase up to 1500, the limit authorized by the present law. As requested by the Commissioner of Jurors we submitted to him a list of over 300 names of prominent citizens for consideration by the Board. In accordance with the law the Board got together a quorum and met on November 29th and again on December 9th, and having devoted itself to passing upon the list of names to compose the Panel of Grand Jurors for the year 1927 presented to it by its clerk, the Commissioner of Jurors, and recognizing fealty to nobody, it adjourned sine die after making the following state- ment addressed to no one. We, the undersigned, members of the Board for the Selection of Grand Jurors for the year nineteen hundred and twenty-seven, have selected from the list presented by the Commissioner of Jurors of persons qualified to serve as Jurors in the County of New York, the following list of Thirteen hundred and ninety-five persons to serve as Grand Jurors for the different terms of the Supreme Court for the trial of criminal actions and of the Court of General Sessions of the County of New York to be held in and for the County of New York, until the next list shall be prepared. (Signed) JOHN PRocToR CLARKE Pres. Jus. App. Div. Supr. Ct., Chnn. ( ~ ) Jon V. McAvoY Associate Justice, App. Div. Supr. Ct. ( ) Joan F. MCINTYRE Judge of the Court of General Sessions Judge of the Court of General Sessions The Mayor of the City of New York December 14, 1926 The net result of their arduous labors is the addition of just 25 names (1395 - 1370 = 25) to the old list. Parturiuit montes, nascitur rediculus mius. An examination of the list shows a number of persons on it who are exempt from jury duty under the law, together with others prominent in the social, financial and polit- ical worlds, whose records of service in the past are farcical, while still others who have served faithfully in the past have been dropped. 0 tempora! 0 mores! Since the Board adjourned the Presiding Justice has been retired from the Bench on account of old age and so went off the Board automatically. The Board as a whole then went into respectable and innocuous desue- tude. Requiescat in pace.

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