The state House voted Wednesday to formally scrap a law that allowed a single judge to act as a grand jury to issue criminal charges. This process was used to indict former Governor Rick Snyder and other members of his administration for alleged crimes related to the Flint water crisis.
That was before the Michigan Supreme Court let stand a decision that the one-judge grand jury is unconstitutional. The court said that is because it illegally combined the roles of judge and prosecutor.
Representative Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) said the rarely used law violated equal protection and due process rights and needs to be scrubbed from the books.
“It’s use in the court system violates the principles of fairness and impartiality in court proceedings, and removing this process from Michigan law does not impede the delivery of justice,” he said. “It upholds the due process rights protected under the Fifth and 14th amendments.”
The House adopted the bill to repeal the law with bipartisan support. But 33 Democrats voted no. Some said they thought the court decision was wrong and the grand juror’s charges should have been allowed to go to trial.
Representative Tyrone Carter (D-Detroit) said the court decision to strike down the one-judge grand jury ignored what happened in Flint.
“So to dismantle an entire system and act like Flint never happened to me is disingenuous,” he told Michigan Public Radio. “OK, you got the outcome. Nobody was charged, but people’s lives have been changed forever and so you’re going to go after the entire process?”
Following the Supreme Court decision, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s prosecution team defended the one-person grand jury process as necessary in Flint as well as in other types of cases. Nessel’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
A former Snyder aide, Richard Baird, sued Attorney General Dana Nessel, then-Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for wrongful prosecution after the case was dismissed. A federal judge ruled they were all immune for their official actions.
The bill to strike the one-judge grand jury from law goes to the Michigan Senate.
