The Grand Jury: A Tool to Repress and Jail Activists

Abstract

Imagine a country where a prosecutor can subpoena you to a grand jury your your friends, for example, or your political affiliations, what you or your friends think of the president, Cuba, Malcom X, Mumia Abu-Jamal, the to the spawned an enforcement-Senator and ask you anything about yout life and thoughts. There are no limits to the scope or breath of the inquiry, and the prosecutor can ask aboutPalestinian struggle, independence for Puerto Rico, East Timor, or any other subject. Even your sex life is not off limits.¹ Imagine also that this entire proceeding is secret; only the prosecutors, the grand jurors, a stenographer, and you are present. Not even your attorney is permitted to accompany you. Imagine that after you are subpoenaed, the prosecutor also can subpoena your children, your mother and father, and all of your friends and ask them all about you.

[W]e have witnessed the birth of a new breed of political animal—the kangaroo grand jury—spawned in a dark corner of the Department of Justice, nourished by an administration bent on twisting law enforcement to serve its own political ends, a dangerous modern form of Star Chamber secret inquisition that is trampling the rights of American Citizens from coast to coast.

—Senator Edward M. Kennedy testifying before a House Judiciary Subcommittee, March 1992.