New York chief judge calls for grand jury reforms after chokehold case

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

New York chief judge calls for grand jury reforms after chokehold case

BY DANIEL WIESSNER
ALBANY, N.Y. Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:05pm EST

(Reuters) - Responding to outrage over a grand jury's decision against indicting a New York City police officer for killing an unarmed black man with a chokehold, the state's top judge on Tuesday proposed giving courts unprecedented authority over grand jury proceedings involving police.

Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman of the New York Court of Appeals said in his annual address in Albany that the public's trust in the justice system had been shaken by the secretive proceedings that did not lead to indictments in the cases of the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner and an officer in Ferguson, Missouri, who shot and killed an unarmed black teen last year.

Lippman said he would soon submit a bill to the state legislature that would require judges to preside over grand jury proceedings in cases involving allegations of homicide or felony assault against police officers.

Such oversight, he said, would be a check on the outsized role of prosecutors in grand jury proceedings, giving the public greater confidence in the process.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/17/us-usa-newyork-grandjury-idUSKBN0LL1S620150217

[peacebird]

1. Perhaps they should also have special prosecutors without any ties to the local community or police

That might help.....