What is your opinion on California's bill SB-227?
According to most people, the change in the grand jury law is supposed to lead to more transparency in the cases of fatal police shootings.
However, in reading the text of the bill, I see nothing to guarantee more transparency. I understand that the idea behind it is to prevent prosecutors from using grand juries as tools (and they do – I know personally from time spent on a grand jury) to get the outcome they want, but is simply transferring all of the power over to them the answer?
This way, it was intended that prosecutors can no longer say “Well, you can’t blame me. It was the grand jury that made this decision”. But do you think this will actually make any kind of difference?
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Grand Juries are not accountable to anyone except the District Attorney. By taking it out of the hands of the GJ, the people can hold the DA accountable to bring charges, and all evidence has to be presented in open court.
We in California are working hard to avoid the crony system evident in St Louis County and in the Borough of Staten Island.
@zenvelo Okay, thank you. Even after having served on one myself, I admit to some ignorance about how things work, but my group’s experience was disturbing, to say the least. That’s what I wanted to know, though – what would and wouldn’t be made available to the public. I couldn’t actually find anything about more transparency.
I think I just realized where my confusion came from. Rather than choosing to indict or not, like a Grand Jury would, the prosecutor is left with the decision of whether or not to press charges – which is what requires the evidence to be presented in court?
I read “An act to amend Sections 917 and 919 of the Penal Code, relating to grand juries” and the Penal Code Sections 918, 830.1 subdivision (a), Section 830.2, Section 830.39 and 836 referred to by this act. While I approve of the stated intention of the act, “to prevent prosecutors from using grand juries as tools,” the exception in 917(a) and 919© seems to shield all law enforcement persons from the grand jury inquiring into an offense that involves a shooting or use of excessive force.
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