Fred's "American Legal Quotations" scores a hit

David A. Daniel dad at POKERWIZ.COM
Wed Oct 2 02:58:08 UTC 2013


Isn't Salem - as in witch hunting - in Massachusetts? Did they have grand
juries? If so, I guess all those charges must have been justified.
DAD

-Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 8:58 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Fred's "American Legal Quotations" scores a hit

-
poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
Subject:      Fred's "American Legal Quotations" scores a hit
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"There is a famous saying, a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich,"
said Bassil.  "I look forward to challenging this in court.  I really
do.  If a grand jury is supposed to protect citizens from
overreaching prosecutors, then there is a lot of work to be done here."

Bassil, counsel for Shayanna Jenkins, Aaron Hernandez's fiancee and
baby mother, is objecting to her indictment for perjury by a Bristol
County, Massachusetts, grand jury.  A spokesman for the Bristol
District Attorney "defended the grand jury process, noting that the
indictment was voted on by the grand jurors, who are citizens of
Bristol County."

Boston Globe, today.

Massachusetts has a long history of grand juries not indicting ham
sandwiches, dating from colonial times, when if a law was considered
overly severe or its punishment harsh, the citizens of a grand jury
might refuse to indict and those of a petit jury refuse to
convict.  (One good example is charges of adultery.)  Bassil seems
not to understand the rectitude of Massachusetts grand juries -- if
this one thought the charge was unjust, it would not have voted to indict.

Joel

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