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Article: GRAND JURY REFORM.(Main)(Editorial)
- Article from:
- Albany Times Union (Albany, NY)
- Article date:
- March 15, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Albany Times Union. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Once again the campaign has been renewed to scrap New York's grand jury system. The grand jury, an English invention brought to this country during Colonial times, may have served a useful purpose at one time - and may even, at times, serve a useful purpose now. But England itself has long abandoned the grand jury proceeding and America should, too.
Defenders of the current arrangement argue that because the grand jury is composed of independent, lay people, it acts as a fundamental defense of a suspect's rights. It prevents, that is to say, a prosecutor from persecuting someone against whom there really is no evidence of wrongdoing.
In theory that is ...