The Pennsylvania grand jury statute, 42 Pa.C.S.A. 4541-4553, needs revision. The investigating grand jury provision, Section 4548, has not been utilized as the legislature intended. The state attorneys apply conflicting standards regarding grand jury procedure depending on which district attorney’s office is involved; the supervising grand jury judges often do not follow the roles prescribed for them by the statute; there is no unified training for judges and prosecutors; the rights of witnesses appearing before the grand juries and their lawyers are not well defined; and decisions regarding such rights and procedures are at best confusing. We have been told that the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee is contemplating holding hearings on amending the statute. This column sets forth an outline of some of the areas that should be amended.
• Prohibit the practice of swearing attorneys for grand jury witnesses to secrecy. This provision has no statutory support except for a tortured interpretation of Section 4549(b), which a plain reading indicates was intended only to apply to attorneys for the state. Such a secrecy provision severely hampers the attorney from conducting a further investigation on behalf of the client. There is no similar provision in the federal grand jury procedure.
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