A FEW CASE SAMPLES AND RESULTS OF ATTEMPTED GRAND JURY OBSTRUCTION IN THE U.S. and so much more.......
Excerpts of case samples spanning from 1933 to 1944, from the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 46, Issue 2, 1955, (1933-1944) and transcript from the Deseret News, January 17, 1967. References included;
"In April, 1933, a panel of citizens in Atlanta, Georgia, threatened to indict the county commissioners if they did not institute reforms. Judge John D. Humphries, speaking for the five judges on the Atlanta bench, rebuked the jurors for departing from their duties. He reminded them that they were mere agents of the court and would be "as helpless as a body of citizens meeting on a street comer" without the power of the court behind them. The jurors rebelled and demanded a new prosecutor and judge to work with, but the court denied their request. Before they adjourned, however, the jurymen indicted the county commissioners and appointed five citizens to conduct a thorough probe of the Municipal and Superior Courts and report to the next grand jury. The attack of Atlanta judges upon the powers of the local grand jury led residents to organize a grand juror's association to encourage future panels to uphold their rights." 1
"In October, 1933, a Cleveland, Ohio grand jury began a probe of the city police department. Led by its energetic and fearless foreman, William Feather, the panel spent three months in investigation and issued a report which shocked the people of Cleveland. The jurymen announced that the entire city had been intimidated by union racketeers who received protection from city officials. They denounced law enforcement officers and declared that the local criminal court "neither merits nor receives the respect or confidence of the people." The jurors noted that the talent of the prosecutor's office was well "below par" and they chided the Cleveland Bar Association for its lack of concern in the matter. Before concluding its report, the grand jury reminded jurors throughout the state of Ohio that they, too, could initiate independent investigations. The succeeding Cleveland grand jury began a thorough inquiry into the defunct Guardian and Union Trust Companies. Indictments followed against officers of both for fraud. In October, 1934, citizens of Cleveland followed the example of those in Chicago and Atlanta and organized a grand juror's association to preserve the rights of their investigative body." 2
"In New York, it took a fighting body of grand jurors to combat the hampering tactics of city officials and to mobilize public opinion for a thorough investigation of rackets. The March, 1935, grand jury took up a probe of policy rackets begun by a predecessor. It soon broke with District Attorney William C. Dodge and began summoning its own witnesses. Foreman Lee Thompson Smith took charge of the inquiry and demanded that the District Attorney appoint a special prosecutor. Racketeers threatened jurors, and their investigators, but they continued their work. When Dodge and the panel could not agree, the jurors asked the court to discharge them and they appealed to Governor Herbert Lehman to summon an extraordinary grand jury and appoint a special prosecutor." 3
Governor Lehman named Thomas E. Dewey as special racket prosecutor and summoned a new panel to convene September 5, 1935. During the next four months the special jury examined over five hundred witnesses as they investigated racketeering in labor unions and trade and protective associations. In December 1935 the panel returned twenty-nine indictments, reporting that control over racketeering in New York City centered in the hands of a dozen or so major criminals who extorted millions from the city each year. A second extraordinary grand jury took up the racket probe in January, 1936. It uncovered a $12,000,000 prostitution racket and put vice lord Charles "Lucky" Luciano and his lieutenants on the road to prison. When the court discharged the panel in August, 1936, after seven months of service, it had broken the back of organized racketeering in New York City. 4
Beginning in September, 1937, a Philadelphia grand jury conducted a seventeen month crusade against vice and racketeering patterned after the Dewey investigations. In May, 1938, the jurors charged 107 persons with gambling and prostitution and accused police officials of accepting bribes to give immunity to criminals. The panel called for immediate dismissal of forty-one police officers on grounds of inefficiency and dishonesty. The jurors reported to the people of Philadelphia again in August, 1938, and charged city and county officials with a "criminal conspiracy" to protect crime and vice. In September they indicted Mayor S. Davis Wilson, on twenty-one counts, of misbehavior in office and failure to suppress crime. But the Mayor managed to have the indictments quashed on a technicality. In order to prevent further exposures by the grand jury, state officials withdrew financial support and the Philadelphia court discontinued the investigation. The jurors charged that the move was but "the culminating act of a long continued opposition which has crippled our work," and they appealed directly to the state Supreme Court which allowed them to continue their inquiry. Free to go ahead once more, the panel lashed out at the District Attorney, accusing him of using the vice investigation for political purposes. The jurymen demanded a complete reorganization of the Philadelphia police department, including dismissal of incompetent officers and reapportionment of police districts to end the influence of politicians. They concluded their work in March, 1939, by re-indicting Mayor Wilson, accusing him of permitting vice and crime to flourish, while he issued blasts of meaningless words. 5
Buffalo, New York, a special panel exposed bribery and fraud in the municipal government. Seventeen city officials faced trial for perjury and bribery. A Miami, Florida, inquest found that bribery had played an important part in establishing electric rates for their city, and they indicted Mayor Robert R. Williams, several councilmen, and other municipal officials. After a two month investigation of city affairs, the jurors condemned the police department for protecting criminals and criticized a newly instituted program to refund the city debt. Members of the jury did not cease to be concerned after they completed their work. As private citizens they inaugurated a recall movement which eventually removed Mayor Williams from office. At Greensboro, North Carolina, a grand jury initiated an inquiry into a primary election. In spite of determined opposition from the court, it discovered and reported many irregularities to the people. 6
In April, 1938, Pennsylvania politicians were engaged in a heated primary election struggle. Dissident elements within the Democratic party leveled charges of corruption and fraud against the Democratic administration of Governor George H. Earle. The district attorney at Harrisburg petitioned for a special grand jury investigation and the Court of Quarter Sessions summoned a panel. Governor Earle took to the radio and in an address to the people of Pennsylvania charged that the proposed probe was "a politically inspired inquisition, to be conducted by henchmen of the Republican State Committee." Two days before the inquiry was to begin, the Attorney General asked the state Supreme Court to restrain the grand jury from beginning an investigation but, the high court declared that it had no such power. The panel prepared to convene early in August. On July 22, 1938, when it appeared that the administration had exhausted all efforts to block the inquiry, Governor Earle summoned an extraordinary session of the state legislature "to repel an unprecedented judicial invasion of the executive and legislative branches of our government." Three days later, he stood before the law makers and warned them that "the Inquisition and the Bloody Assizes... stand as grim reminders of judicial tyranny." The Governor charged the judges and the District Attorney with abusing their authority and asked the legislature to look into their conduct. He then requested legislation to block the threatened grand jury probe. The Democratic legislators rushed through a retroactive law suspending all investigations of public officials once the House of Representatives had taken jurisdiction and begun an inquiry. They also empowered the Attorney General to supersede any district attorney. A House committee launched an immediate investigation, but the court impounded all evidence awaiting the grand jury. Again the matter went to the Supreme Court. In October, 1938, it declared unconstitutional the law restricting investigations and reminded the legislators that they could not abolish the grand jury." 7
The example of public officials going to any length to prevent a panel of citizens from investigating, led New Yorkers to strengthen their grand jury system. Rallying behind the slogan, "What happened in Pennsylvania can happen here," the constitutional convention meeting at Albany in 1938 made certain that the grand jury would remain the people's shield against official corruption. A new clause added to the state constitution provided that inquiries into official misconduct could never be suspended by law. In addition, all public officers summoned before grand juries had to testify without immunity or be removed from office. 8
Pennsylvania's Governor Earle failed in his attempt to dictate to grand juries. Shortly after his defeat at the hands of the state Supreme Court, a panel of citizens investigated the state government and indicted Secretary of Highways Roy E. Brownmiller on charges of using $600,000 in state funds for political purposes. 9 The Pennsylvania lesson did not go unheeded in other states. Citizen's groups in Washington in June, 1941, succeeded in getting the state legislature to approve a constitutional amendment making one grand jury a year mandatory in each county. In addition, the amendment would bar prosecuting attorneys from advising grand juries. Special prosecutors conducted a vigorous campaign against the proposals and managed to defeat them in a referendum held in November, 1941. Citizens of Missouri were more successful. The convention which met in 1943 to revise the state constitution inserted a specific provision that the power of grand juries to investigate misconduct in public office should never be suspended. 10
"When Salt Lake and Weber counties impaneled grand juries in 1965 and 1966, respectively, they discovered that Utah law on the subject had grown rusty from disuse. They discovered, among other things, that: - Grand juries can be subject to the very officials they are investigating. The pay is so low that service on a grand jury may involve punishing sacrifices. - Instead of helping to prevent wrongdoing or administrative deficiencies, grand juries ordinarily aren't convened until public outcry is raised and by that time (unreadable) The Salt Lake County Grand Jury made several recommendations that bear careful consideration. Grand juries, the Salt Lake County Report said, should be convened every two years in counties with populations over 250,000; should be authorized to select their own investigators and counsel instead of having them named by the attorney general; should be paid more than $8 a day; and should be allowed to be more specific in reporting non-indictable misconduct by public officials. Some parallel suggestions were made the past weekend by Third District Judge Aldon J. Anderson, who was in charge of the Salt Lake Grand Jury. Among other things, he recommended that district courts hold hearings every two years, hearing in secret, any and all witnesses desiring to appear. On the basis of that testimony, the judges would determine if a grand jury should be convened. Also, that the jury be allowed to approve its investigator or counsel, that it be given power to report its recommendations on improving procedures, and that the law be amended to define more clearly what constitutes malfeasance. Which of the two suggestions for calling a grand jury is best will require some study. But there should be no doubt about other recommendations. As this page has noted before, any official or group can function better with assistants of its own choosing, in whom they have confidence. Moreover, since grand juries aren't impaneled unless confidence in normal law enforcement channels breaks down, it doesn't make sense to vest the selection of key personnel for a grand jury in the hands of usual law enforcement officials. When the Salt Lake Grand Jury was first impaneled, its members were paid only $4 a day, which by a special ruling was subsequently raised to the $8 a day paid trial jury members. But trial juries ordinarily serve for only a few days or weeks, whereas grand jurors may have to be away from their jobs for months on end. The pay level should be raised without making it so high that jurors would prolong their work endlessly. Although incompetence among public officials isn't always illegal, the public ought to be told where it exists. Florida, New York, and other states enable their grand juries to do just that without unjustly dragging public servants' names through the mud. Utah should be able to do as much. As far as convening grand juries regularly, the mere knowledge that this could happen ought to help deter wrongdoing and keep public officials on their toes. Two different special sessions of the Legislature have come and gone since most of these findings and recommendations were first made. With the regular session now underway, improvement of Utah's grand jury laws is in order. 11
References: 1) ATLANTA CONSTIT., April 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 28, 29, 1933; CHARLES H. Tuttle, Grand Juries By Exercising Their Initiative Can Put Fear Into Criminals and Unfaithful Public Servants, PANEL (March-April 1933), XI, 13; Phil C. McDuffie, Fulton County, Georgia Grand Jurors Assert Independence, PANEL (November-December 1933), XI, 31.
2) CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, October 10, 14, 24, November 3, December 22, 1933; February 2, April 3, 14, October 23, 1934; Ohio Grand Jury Report Startles Country, PANEL (January-February 1934), XII, 11; William Feather, Foreman Tells Why Criminals Fear Action By Grand Jury, PANEL (March-April 1934), XII, 17.
3) NEW YORK TIMES, March 12, June 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 1935; Robert B. Wilkes, A History Making Grand Jury, PANEL (September-October 1935), XIII, 1.
4) NEW YORK TIMES, December 27, 1935; July 1, August 11, 1936; L. Seton Lindsay, Extraordinary Grand Juries, PANEL (March 1936), XIV, No. 1, 3; Dewey Grand Jury Strikes At Rackets, PANEL. (May-June 1936), XIV, No. 2, 6; Grand Juries Active in Presentments To Court, PANEL (November-December 1936), XIV, No. 3, 4.
5) NEW YORK TIMES, February 6, May 5, 14, August 18, November 20, 24, December 2, 28, 1938; March 2,3, April 7, 1939; Shenker vs. Harr, 332 Penna State Reports 382 (1938); Commonwealth vs Hubbs, 137 Penna Superior Court 229 (1939).
6) NEW YORK TIMES, January 9, 11, 18, 25, February 2, April 15, 1938; March 2, 1939; Frank C. Miller Jr., Grand Juries-Independent Investigations, N.C. Law Rev. (1938), XVII, 43. 1955)
7) NEW YORK TIMES, July 26, August 8, 11, 1938; Dauphin County Grand Jury Investigation, 332 Penna State Reports 290,342 (1938); Laws of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, Extraordinary Session (1938), 18-19, Legislative Interference With the Grand Jury, Harv. Law Rev. (1938), LII, 151-153; Power of the Legislature to Suspend Grand Jury Investigations, Col. Law Rev. (December 1938), XXXVIII, 1493-1501.
8) NEW YORK TIMES, August 8, 11, 1938; JOURNAL OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF THE STATE or NEW YORK (Albany, 1938), 248; Article I, sec. 6, of the New York Constitution as revised in 1938.
9) Commonwealth vs. Brownmiller, 141 Penna Superior Court 107 (1940).
10) Session Laws of the State of Washington (1941), 436-437; Ewen, C. Dingwall, Independent Grand Juries Opposed In. Washington State, Nat. Munic. Rev. (June 1941), XXX, 374; Journals of the Constitutional Convention of if Missouri (Jefferson City. 1944), III, 13.
11) Deseret News January 17, 1967 Utah Grand Juries Need Better Tools (Transcribed from newspaper image)
Want to know how dangerous this situation is? Find the documentaries; “Conspiracy of Silence; The Franklin Cover Up” http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/conspiracy-of-silence/ Or “A Noble Lie” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV4uuzgl5ig Both of which will show how the courts and Press stop any real investigation of crimes at the national level and how Common Law Grand Juries would’ve forced these crimes into the Light of day and forced the perpetrators into accountability.
Another bit of history about the corruption of our national statehouse and religious leaders can be seen here; “The United States of Hypocrisy vs. The Lawful Hawaiian Government (Full Version)-Ken O'Keefe”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya0g0EP6eMs&list=PLHZXrxO4ubfDQA4jhjyB60PNkt6JWPDE6
Apparently the infiltration and corruption came on full force shortly before the War Between the States and has never been fully vetted to the public at large and this will be my focus for the CLGJ in whatever state I may domicile in from this point forward.
This corruption is why the CIA/State Department can smuggle drugs and weapons anywhere in the world. Why the truth is not known about any of the national crimes that have occurred since, at least, 1950. Why America never found out about the truth of the Whitewater scandal in Arkansas, the impeachment of Bill Clinton for campaign donations violations, what was advertised as the “Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, the attack on the church in Waco, Texas, and the demolition of World Trade Center and attack on the Pentagon on 09/11/2001. The Press, and churches, have to be controlled because they are the only ones that can keep the entire Nation fully informed about incidents such as these. The same people that are getting rich from the kidnapped girls, lost airplanes, Cap and Trade, blind drone strikes, poppy fields, selling/killing our children, brought you fluoride and aspartame to promote cancer/physiological dysfunction, psychosis and mental dysfunction etc.,etc.,etc. Look for yourself and then think about it...
Hear causation and solutions to these deadly issues at; www.nationallibertyalliance.org Or, better yet, come to our Monday evening calls at 8 PM CST; 559 726 1300 Code 385698#
The Golden Rule Across The World; Baha’i Faith- Lay not on any soul a load you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself. Islam- Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself. Hinduism- This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you. Judaism- What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah: all the rest is commentary. Jainism- One should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated. Zoroastrianism- Do not do to others what is injurious to yourself. Native Spirituality- We are as much alive as we keep the earth alive. Unitarianism- We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
Christianity- In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
Sikhism- I am no stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed I am a friend to all. Taoism- Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. Confucianism- One word which sums up the basis of all good conduct.... loving kindness. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.
Buddhism- Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.
Jesus wasn’t Christian, Buddha wasn’t Hindu, Mohammed wasn’t Muslim. They died for proclaiming a religion of love, patience and service to others. The honor in their names was then bent to serve the needs of the ruling monarchs of the times! Where is all the war coming from? To answer that question I pray you understand this booklet as I, without my 40+ year trek through the chaos created for all, to encourage them to throw up their hands in disgust or confusion and walk back into the barnyard with the rest of the livestock.
Just wanted to share because if you don't look for yourselves you will only know what is intended for you to know…………….. and the bands play on.
Peace All. Your friend and Brother Johnny B Mikel
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