Pete Sessions: “I would like to say a few things about grand juries. I spent 15 years as a Federal prosecutor working with grand juries…”

“I would like to say a few things about grand juries. I spent 15 years as a Federal prosecutor working with grand juries on a regular basis. And people say, ``Oh, it's a secret proceeding.'' Well, would you rather have your witnesses have to go and testify in open court? You see, the purpose of a grand jury is simply to determine whether there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and whether the defendant probably committed it, to set that case for trial. It is a protection. Some say, ``Well, just let the prosecutors indict and eliminate the grand jury because the grand jury will indict a ham sandwich.'' I heard that here today. Grand juries will not indict a ham sandwich. You have to present evidence to them sufficient for them to understand the charge; and the evidence that is presented is before they will return an indictment and set the case for trial. At trial, the burden of proof is not ``probably committed a crime''; at trial the burden of proof is ``beyond a reasonable doubt''; to a moral certainty sometimes the judge charges the jury. So that is where the trial takes place. Now, I recall a line by Justice Macklin Fleming in California. He said, ``Perfect justice is not achievable in this life. In the pursuit of perfect justice, we destroy what justice is achievable.'' Well, I just say that an obsession with everything becoming more and more complicated is not the history of our Nation and its criminal law.”