Miami Herald Logo

A witness in the grand jury room | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

From Our Inbox

A witness in the grand jury room

BY FAITH GAY

    ORDER REPRINT →

January 04, 2015 10:00 AM

Federal investigation of local police killings makes sense to many people. Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch — the current and future attorneys general — are experienced, even-handed civil rights prosecutors, the Justice Department isn’t subject to local political pressure, and federal investigators aren’t bound by friendship or a shared workplace to officers under scrutiny. At the same time, the feds well understand the daily grind and psychic stress of life in law enforcement.

But no one should imagine that a federal civil rights investigation constitutes a simple do-over of the work of a state grand jury. The feds investigate the facts under a completely different and more demanding set of statutes requiring proof of racial animus. These tough-to-prove requirements are seldom met, and federal civil rights indictments are reserved for the rarest of fact patterns.

This rarity is but one reason Americans should not be forced to rely on the feds to obtain justice in the face of suspected police brutality. Federal investigations are costly in every way: Justice is delayed. Elected state prosecutors feel as if their authority is undermined. Once a state grand jury declines to indict, many thoughtful people on both the left and right believe a second criminal investigation is unfair to the accused. More troubling, the public perceives a federal civil rights investigation as a vote of no confidence in the local justice system.

So how can we avoid dependence on federal “cleanup” investigations when a civilian has been killed by police?

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

In the aftermath of the cases in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., is there a way to restore broad confidence in the process? New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s suggestion that such grand jury investigations be handled by his office rather than local prosecutors deserves serious consideration. This reform would take pressure off district attorneys asked to indict members of their own police forces. But it’s not likely to be carried out in most states, as duly elected local prosecutors make strong legal, policy and fiscal arguments for maintaining control of the grand jury process.

But other elegant solutions would not curtail the duties of local prosecutors. For starters, as occurred to some extent in Ferguson, the complete evidentiary record should be made available to the public within hours of a grand jury’s decision. Legitimate reasons for secrecy — protecting the reputation of those investigated and avoiding witness tampering and intimidation — either don’t apply in high-publicity police brutality investigations or are outweighed by the need for increased public scrutiny of what happened behind the grand jury’s closed doors.

In the current climate of distrust, however, this wouldn’t go nearly far enough. A better answer can be derived from the heart of our adversarial system: A powerful and trusted witness should be positioned behind those closed doors to observe the prosecutor’s presentation to the grand jurors.

States wouldn’t have to overhaul their entire grand jury systems to accomplish this. A state could easily require its governor or state bar association to appoint a highly qualified monitor to observe and report on the grand jury investigation in every police death case. The monitor could be chosen from a pre-qualified pool of lawyers who have experience as both prosecutors and defense counsel and who have demonstrated a deep commitment to fairness.

At the end of the process, these monitors would report publicly on whether all investigative leads were exhausted and evidence properly preserved, whether the examinations of witnesses were thorough and aggressive, and whether the grand jury was appropriately aided in understanding the import of disparate testimony and the application of relevant criminal statutes. These monitors — working for free as sophisticated but silent observers — would also summarize grand jury evidence for public consumption and provide an opinion as to whether a separate federal civil rights investigation is warranted.

In addition, from this same panel of monitors, advisory counsel could be made available to victims’ families. Grieving relatives would be more invested in the grand jury process if they could speak prosecutors’ language and would feel more parity with the accused, who inevitably has a competent lawyer.

States with a confident commitment to equal justice would permit the victim’s advocate to observe the proceedings and register any concerns with the prosecutor before grand jury deliberation. More cautious states might choose between these two proposals, allowing either a neutral legal monitor or a victim’s family observer, but not both.

Prosecutors loathe meddling, but a highly qualified, private monitoring system is the logical first step to enhanced government accountability in police cases resulting in death. This kind of public-private partnership is worth exploring before the public loses faith in the process altogether. Prosecutors intent on fairness have nothing to fear. A sophisticated lawyer-witness to closed-door proceedings would dramatically decrease the chances of misconduct or bias while preventing an untold loss of blood, sweat and tears.

The writer, a former civil rights prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, is a partner at the law firm Quinn Emanuel.

Special to The Washington Post

  Comments  

Videos

Posada: “I’m really excited for the opportunity”

Kyler Murray says he picked football over baseball because he loves it

View More Video

Trending Stories

Haitian police arrest five Americans who claimed they were on a ‘government mission’

February 18, 2019 06:37 PM

Man arrested after climbing crane near FIU to ask Trump for mercy for Cuban exile bomber

February 18, 2019 08:44 AM

A Florida 6th-grader called the Pledge of Allegiance ‘racist.’ Then he got arrested.

February 18, 2019 08:59 AM

Double vision: Miami will host Miami in future football game

February 18, 2019 06:36 PM

Here’s why the Dolphins will avoid dummies more than ever. And coaches weigh in on new QB

February 18, 2019 02:07 PM

Read Next

More women in public office may improve ethics

From Our Inbox

More women in public office may improve ethics

By JOSEPH M. CENTORINO

    ORDER REPRINT →

March 30, 2018 08:55 PM

The problems of sexual harassment or discrimination and government corruption are not unrelated. We know of instances where the demand for sexual favors by persons holding positions of public trust has been used as a form of extortion or even bribery.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE FROM OUR INBOX

From Our Inbox

Trump’s parade

February 08, 2018 01:24 AM

From Our Inbox

Chain migration

December 20, 2017 01:42 AM

From Our Inbox

FPL rates

December 19, 2017 02:15 AM

From Our Inbox

Matt Lauer and...

November 29, 2017 08:13 PM

From Our Inbox

Thank you, Mayor Regalado

November 14, 2017 11:07 PM

From Our Inbox

High-rent rationale

November 14, 2017 01:42 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story