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81 Judicature 190 (1997-1998)
Is the Grand Jury Worth Keeping

handle is hein.journals/judica81 and id is 192 raw text is: ndependent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of alleged crimes surrounding President Clinton's relationship with a White House intern has focused a great deal of popular attention on the grand jury as an institution. Un- like the petit, or trial, jury, the grand SUSAN W. BRENNER, a professor at the University of Dayton School of Law, is co-author of Federal Grand Jury Prac- tice (West Publishing Co., 1996). jury operates in secret and ignores principles such as the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary rule, Miranda rights, and the Federal Rules of Evidence. To the grand jury's proponents, 190 Judicature Volume 81, Number 5 The grand jury plays a critical role in law enforcement, but reforms are needed to restore its intended purposes. by Susan W. Brenner these are essential characteristics of an institution that plays a critical role in law enforcement. To its critics, these and other aspects of the grand jury make it an instrument of oppres- sion, a modern-day Star Chamber. Defenders of the status quo are correct in maintaining that grand ju- ries cannot, and should not, be bound by many of the strictures im- posed on courts and law enforce- ment officers. However, prosecutors do have too much control over grand jury proceedings. What can be done to reduce the prosecutor's dominance and re- store the grand jury to its intended purposes? A review of the functions of a grand jury and the relationship between a grand jury, a court, and a prosecutor is helpful to provide some answers. An inquisitorial body In some states grand juries handle civil matters, but for the most part they concentrate on criminal activity. The federal system and most of the states use them to bring charges for serious crimes, the felonies for which one can be incarcerated a year or more. Grand juries do this by hearing March-April 1998

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