HARRISBURG (PA)
Associated Press
Dec. 14, 2019
By Mark Scolforo
A state court system task force wants Pennsylvania to stop issuing grand jury reports, an idea that faces long odds in the Legislature, which would have to pass a new law to halt the practice.
The Supreme Court-appointed task force, consisting of five lawyers and two judges, issued its report last month, just a day or two after lawmakers cast final votes on four bills designed to help victims of child sexual abuse. It was legislation that an investigative grand jury proposed last year, when it found that hundreds of Roman Catholic priests had sexually abused children over seven decades.
The task force’s recommendations are not binding and being forwarded to the high court’s Criminal Procedural Rules Committee. But it will be up to the General Assembly to decide whether to prohibit grand jury reports or, in another recommendation, authorize smaller counties to form regional grand juries.
If the reports are not stopped, the task force majority said, they should at least no longer include information that is critical of people by name if they are not expected to face criminal charges.
A spokesman for the majority Republican caucus in the state House, Mike Straub, said leaders are not inclined to do away with grand jury reports.
“Grand jury reports are one way the courts can communicate with the Legislature,” Straub said, citing the clergy abuse report. “If we dismiss the importance of that work, we are reducing the ability of the three branches of government to effectively communicate and work together in the best interest of Pennsylvanians.”
In the Senate, Republican leaders said they need more time to study the report, while the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Larry Farnese of Philadelphia, said the report was inadequate and wants senators to perform their own review of the grand jury system.
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