Post by Logan on Jun 25, 2016 16:42:57 GMT -6
RALEIGH — Legislation advancing through the North Carolina Senate would give new powers to investigative grand juries, a move that the attorney general has been pushing for nearly a decade.
A Senate judiciary committee passed a bill Thursday to give the state the ability to call witnesses and compel them to testify in cases of bribery or public corruption. The measure, which now goes to the Senate Finance Committee, passed the House unanimously earlier this month.
Attorney General Roy Cooper and district attorneys have fought for years to expand investigative grand juries, which state law currently allows only in drug and human trafficking cases. That restriction has forced state prosecutors to hand cases over to the federal government for prosecution.
For public corruption cases such as that of former House Speaker Jim Black, who in 2007 pleaded guilty to a felony charge and entered an Alford plea to state charges, North Carolina was forced to partner with federal prosecutors to call investigative grand juries. A federal investigative grand jury that met for more than a year looked into his finances and related areas. Black pleaded guilty to a single count of accepting things of value in connection with the business of state government.
Read more: www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/lawmakers-poised-to-expand-investigative-grand-juries/article_3b0f8126-3b22-11e6-88eb-2be9f234662a.html
For those that live outside of North Carolina this seems like a reasonable bill to support since the federal government should not be interfering with matters that should be handled at the state level. However, residents of North Carolina may view this legislation as another infringement of their rights and a sign of expanding governmental power.
A Senate judiciary committee passed a bill Thursday to give the state the ability to call witnesses and compel them to testify in cases of bribery or public corruption. The measure, which now goes to the Senate Finance Committee, passed the House unanimously earlier this month.
Attorney General Roy Cooper and district attorneys have fought for years to expand investigative grand juries, which state law currently allows only in drug and human trafficking cases. That restriction has forced state prosecutors to hand cases over to the federal government for prosecution.
For public corruption cases such as that of former House Speaker Jim Black, who in 2007 pleaded guilty to a felony charge and entered an Alford plea to state charges, North Carolina was forced to partner with federal prosecutors to call investigative grand juries. A federal investigative grand jury that met for more than a year looked into his finances and related areas. Black pleaded guilty to a single count of accepting things of value in connection with the business of state government.
Read more: www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/lawmakers-poised-to-expand-investigative-grand-juries/article_3b0f8126-3b22-11e6-88eb-2be9f234662a.html
For those that live outside of North Carolina this seems like a reasonable bill to support since the federal government should not be interfering with matters that should be handled at the state level. However, residents of North Carolina may view this legislation as another infringement of their rights and a sign of expanding governmental power.