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20 Panel 1 (1942)

handle is hein.journals/panelmbu20 and id is 1 raw text is: To increase the effectiveness of the Grand Jury System

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IHE. FANEL
A Publication Devoted to the Exchange of Views of Public Officials and Citivens in the Effort to Prevent Crime and .Secure
the True Administration of Justice
PUBLISHED BY THE
GRAND JURY ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK COUNTY, Inc.
Contributions and letters in The Panel are either credited to their authors or signed with the names or initials of their writers and the Association assumes
no responsibility for the opinions contained therein beyond expressing the view that the subjects they treat of are worthy of the attention of Grand Jurors.
VOL. 20                                                       MARCH, 1942                                                               NO. I

City Deprived
Of Business
Aid to Jury
Residence Law Change
Urged to Open Field
To Suburbanites
By F. V. LANGAN
It will not do to say that one
shall have of a community all that
he can get out of the community,
and on the other hand shall not re-
turn to the community some corre-
sponding obligation of citizenship.
(U.S. v. Nardello, 4 Mackay, 503).
One of the main objectives of the
Grand Jury Association of New
York County is to encourage citi-
zens who are unfettered by political
ties and who owe no allegiance to
special interests to make application
for selection as Grand Jurors. In
this way it seeks to raise the stan-
dard of the Grand Jury by attract-
ing a high type of individual.
The orderly and intelligent en-
forcement of law is a matter in
which business and industry are
vitally concerned, yet a recent can-
vass by the Association of the per-
sonnel of one hundred representa-
tive organizations covering a fairly
good cross-section of the business
interests of the City of New York
asking them to regard it as a civic
duty to personally make applica-
tion for Grand Jury service or at
least suggest persons in whom they
had confidence, brought little or no
response. All the replies were com-
parable in character, to wit:
In a canvass of our personnel
qualified to serve, I find that not
one lives in New York County.
A surprisingly small number of
our supervisory men reside in New
York County, in fact there are
only six.
Numerous responses such as Mr.
- is a resident of Westchester
(Continued on page 6)

HIGH TRIBUTE TO GRAND JURY
Much of the credit for the improved conditions of law
enforcement in New York City today as compared with those of
only a few years ago must be placed at the door of the Grand
Jury room.
So declares the Citizens Committee on the Control of Crime
in New York in its annual report just released for publication
as we go.to press. And, to quote further from the report:-
Material and corporal losses must be minimized, laws obeyed
and order respected to insure a victory that will be in accord
with the dignity of man and the spirit of democracy. Right-
minded citizens-warders of good government-must accept their
responsibilities and must not permit a return to the shamefa
conditions under which the city's economic efforts labored in the
not too remote past.
Citizens Warned to Prevent
Return of Crime Conditions
Administration of criminal justice in New York City is on a higher
plane than it has been for many years, the Citizens Committee on the
Control of Crime declares, in a report just made public by Harry F.
Guggenheim, its president. The Committee reminds citizens it is their
responsibility to prevent a return to the shameful conditions under
which the city's economic efforts labored in the not too remote past.
The report, covering the fourth
year of the Committee's day-by-      The scientific theory is that
day observation of the work of the punishment should fit the criminal
police, prosecutors and   criminal and not the crime. But suspended
courts of the city, says that in sentences without supervision   -
analyzing the current New    York and there were 99 of them -   says
crime picture there is much to the      report, raise  the question
justify the public's confidence in whether such judgments conform
its law enforcement agencies.      to fundamental theories of criminal
Nevertheless, the Committee prosecutions       and  sound   public
raises a question of grave impor- policy.
tance. With a decrease of 5 8 in     The whole machinery of crm-
the whole number of sentences, as inal justice is geared to bring those
compared with the previous year, who have transgressed the criminal
there was an increase of 54 in sus- law before the courts on sentence
pended sentences. They numbered day. Although the object of sen-
1,8s17 - 34 per cent of the whole tence is not vengeance, something
number sentenced. There were 466 should be done to protect the pub-
defendants convicted   of felonies lic, and while punishment is, as
upon   whom   sentence  was   sus- yet, at least, the most effectual
pended, 13 of whom were returned means, no one can quarrel with
to society without supervision. Of adequately administered and strictly
the 1,351 offenders who had been supervised   probation  in  suitable
convicted of misdemeanors and had cases. But suspended sentences with-
sentences suspended, 86 left court out supervision give the public no
to go free without supervision.          (Continued on page 2)

Danger
In Sec

Seen
recy

Loophole
Writer Would Require
Grand Jury Witness
To Take Oath
By THURSTON GREENE
of Greene & Greene,
Counsel to the Association
Throughout the centuries during
which grand jury procedure has
stood as a bulwark protecting the
citizen against persecution masquer-
ading as legal procedure, it has been
the policy of the law to maintain
the secrecy of grand jury delibera-
tions. The reasons are frequently
misunderstood. Demagogues, eager
to enlarge their own powers, find
in the wise protection afforded by
the grand jury system an effective
barrier against their own personal
exercise of the prerogative of official
accusation. They may rant against
the secrecy of the grand jury as
constituting a star chamber pro-
ceeding, referring, of course, to a
court of ill repute ancient even in
Blackstone's time, and the principal
criticism against which was that
judges tried cases in secret and
without a jury.
A grand jury is not a court, but
the official repository of the con-
science of the community, which
must be heard to accuse before any
citizen can be put to trial for
felony.
The requirement of secrecy is not
designed to protect the grand jury,
but the people. If the proceedings
were public, untold injury would
be done to the reputations of hon-
est citizens through having reck-
less, malicious, envious, or vindic-
tive persons publicly air their opin-
ions, prejudices, and grievances,
under the appearance of official
sanction, though no crime has been
(Continued on page 2)

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