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BILLS-115hr4332ih-GrandJuryReformAct1.pdf
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115TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4332
To provide that in the case of a law enforcement officer who uses deadly
force against a person, and thereby causes the death of that person,
a hearing shall be conducted before a judge to determine whether there
is probable cause for the State to bring criminal charges against the
law enforcement officer relating to the death of the person, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Mr. COHEN, Ms. NORTON, Ms.
MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mrs. WAT-
SON COLEMAN, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. CLAY,
Mr. ELLISON, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. CICILLINE,
Mr. CONYERS, and Ms. MOORE) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL To provide that in the case of a law enforcement officer
who uses deadly force against a person, and thereby
causes the death of that person, a hearing shall be con-
ducted before a judge to determine whether there is
probable cause for the State to bring criminal charges
against the law enforcement officer relating to the death
of the person, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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•HR 4332 IH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Grand Jury Reform 2
Act of 2017’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
The Congress finds the following: 5
(1) Grand juries are typically used as the proc-6
ess by which allegations of police misconduct are 7
prosecuted. 8
(2) There exists a symbiotic relationship be-9
tween local prosecutors and the law enforcement of-10
ficers who regularly testify in routine grand jury in-11
vestigations. 12
(3) The closeness of this relationship creates 13
public suspicion that accused police officers receive 14
preferential consideration from grand juries when 15
they are subject to grand jury investigations. 16
(4) Police officers have the right to appear be-17
fore the grand jury investigating allegations of 18
wrongdoing by said officer, and give testimony not 19
subject to a thorough cross examination. 20
(5) Grand jury proceedings are by law secret 21
proceedings. 22
(6) The secret grand jury process has histori-23
cally resulted in a refusal to indict when the subject 24
of their investigation is a local law enforcement offi-25
cer. 26
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•HR 4332 IH
(7) The recent grand jury proceedings following 1
the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have 2
followed historical tradition, ending with a refusal to 3
indict the law enforcement officers involved in their 4
deaths. 5
(8) The American people have lost confidence in 6
the secretive grand jury process when it is used to 7
evaluate allegations of police misconduct. 8
(9) The loss of confidence in our system of jus-9
tice leads to the undermining of the principles of 10
equality and justice upon which this country was 11
founded. 12
(10) Preliminary hearings are often replaced 13
with direct presentments, whereby the prosecutor 14
may send a case directly to the grand jury without 15
a public preliminary hearing. 16
SEC. 3. HEARING BEFORE A JUDGE REQUIRED. 17
(a) RECEIPT OF GRANT FUNDS.—In order for a 18
State or unit of local government in a State to be eligible 19
to receive Federal funding under subpart 1 of part E of 20
title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act 21
of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 et seq.), the State shall comply 22
with the requirements of this section. 23
(b) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 24
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•HR 4332 IH
(1) NOTIFICATION TO PROSECUTOR.—In the 1
case of a law enforcement officer of a local law en-2
forcement agency who uses deadly force against a 3
person in the course of the officer’s employment, 4
and thereby causes the death of that person, not 5
later than 24 hours after the death occurs, the chief 6
officer of the law enforcement agency of the locality 7
in which the death occurred shall report the death 8
to the elected prosecutor of that locality. 9
(2) NOTIFICATION TO GOVERNOR.—Not later 10
than 24 hours after receiving notice under para-11
graph (1), the elected prosecutor of the locality in 12
which the death occurred shall report the death to 13
the Governor of that State. 14
(c) HEARING REQUIREMENT; APPOINTMENT OF SPE-15
CIAL PROSECUTOR.— 16
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 days after 17
receiving notice under subsection (b)(2), the Gov-18
ernor of the State in which the death occurred shall 19
appoint a special prosecutor to present evidence on 20
behalf of the State at a hearing before a judge in 21
the appropriate court, in order to determine whether 22
probable cause exists for the State to bring criminal 23
charges against the law enforcement officer relating 24
to the death of the person, which determination shall 25
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•HR 4332 IH
be made by the judge. The Governor shall use a ran-1
dom process to select the special prosecutor from 2
among all of the elected prosecutors in the State, ex-3
cluding the elected prosecutor of the locality in 4
which the death occurred. 5
(2) TIMING.—The hearing described in para-6
graph (1) shall be held not later than 90 days after 7
the appointment of the special prosecutor, unless the 8
judge determines that good cause exists to delay the 9
hearing. 10
(3) COURT TO REMAIN OPEN TO THE PUB-11
LIC.—Except as determined appropriate by the pre-12
siding judge, in a hearing described in paragraph 13
(1), the court shall remain open to the public, and 14
upon scheduling the hearing the judge shall provide 15
notice to the public of the date, time, and location 16
of the hearing. 17
(d) STATE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY TO HAVE 18
EXCLUSIVE AUTHORITY OVER INVESTIGATION.— 19
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 24 hours 20
after receiving notice under subsection (b)(2), the 21
Governor shall report the death to the chief officer 22
of the State law enforcement agency of the State in 23
which the death occurred, and the State law enforce-24
ment agency shall assume exclusive control of the in-25
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•HR 4332 IH
vestigation of the death during the pendency of the 1
probable cause hearing. 2
(2) COOPERATION OF LOCAL LAW ENFORCE-3
MENT AGENCY.—The chief officer of the law enforce-4
ment agency of the locality in which the death oc-5
curred shall cooperate with the special prosecutor 6
and the chief officer of the State law enforcement 7
agency by responding promptly to requests for infor-8
mation related to the death. 9
(e) WRITTEN DETERMINATION OF PROBABLE 10
CAUSE.—Not later than 5 days after the conclusion of a 11
hearing described in subsection (c), the judge presiding 12
over the hearing shall issue the determination described 13
in subsection (c) in writing, and shall submit such deter-14
mination to the elected prosecutor of the locality in which 15
the death occurred. Such determination shall be made 16
available to the public. 17
(f) RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE SPECIAL PROS-18
ECUTOR.—Upon the conclusion of a hearing described in 19
subsection (c), the special prosecutor shall submit written 20
recommendations to the elected prosecutor of the locality 21
in which the death occurred, including a recommendation 22
regarding whether criminal charges should be brought 23
against the law enforcement officer relating to the death 24
of the person. 25
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•HR 4332 IH
(g) TOLLING OF PROCEDURAL DEADLINES.—Any 1
applicable filing or other procedural deadlines are tolled 2
during the pendency of the hearing described in subsection 3
(c). 4
(h) PRESERVATION OF PROSECUTORIAL DISCRE-5
TION.—The hearing described in subsection (c) shall be 6
purely advisory, and shall have no binding effect on the 7
elected prosecutor of the locality in which the death oc-8
curred. After the conclusion of the hearing described in 9
subsection (c), the elected prosecutor of the locality in 10
which the death occurred shall retain prosecutorial discre-11
tion as to whether to bring charges against the law en-12
forcement officer, including whether to hold a grand jury 13
proceeding in the appropriate court. 14
Æ
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- Superintendent of Documents
- 2017-11-17T03:28:32-0500
- US GPO, Washington, DC 20401
- Superintendent of Documents
- GPO attests that this document has not been altered since it was disseminated by GPO
