A grand jury can meet anywhere – and should!
by Mary W Maxwell
As our readers know, GumshoeNews has been dabbling in articles, petitions, Fringe plays, a song, attempts to reach the guardianship board, and whatever else we can do to find ways to get the conviction of Martin Bryant turned around.
Many Australians are aware of the falseness of the case that was presented in court in Tasmania in 1996, but many others are still going on the official story that Bryant was the gunman in the Port Arthur massacre.
This article was prompted by Mal Hughes’ comment to my article “Hands Across the Ocean – Against Fake Terrorism.” Mal pointed out that few people know the truth about Port Arthur. I recall that in the Foreword to our book, Port Arthur: Enough Is Enough, Dee McLachlan said that when she mentioned Bryant’s innocence at a party in 2014, “Jaws dropped.”
Yesterday I went for a walk in Watertown MA, on the street where Tamerlan Tsarnaev underwent his Podstava arrest, Mt Auburn St. I was wearing a laminated sign on both my front and back. The front said “Free Jahar: Marathon trial illegal.” The back said “Please ask me about the Boston Marathon trial.”
I did not get so much as a look. Earlier in the day, I pranced around a crowded place in Boston wearing the sign and nobody said “Right on.” Granted, they didn’t say “Drop dead” either. All was silent. Possibly folks don’t recognize the phrase “Free Jahar.” Elena Teyer once collected 7,000 signatures for Jahar, but few were Bostonians.
Note: A friend has now recommended that I change my laminated sign to “Arrest the Marathon bombers.” Good idea.
Is It Hopeless?
Bryant is in prison for life; Jahar Tsarnaev is on Death Row.
Please join me in trying to figure out how to connect the persons who do care with some form of action they could take. As mentioned, Jahar has at least 7,000 supporters globally, and in Australia, Cherri Bonney arranged a Change.org petition that brought 3200 signatures for Martin, mainly from Oz.
Signatures are NOT enough. Also, rallying in person is not enough, as we saw when a huge number of people took to the street in Oz’s capital cities to vote “no’ on the planned invasion of Iraq, and then Parliament voted “Yes.”
How To Get Action
The law is full of ways to straighten out problems, including in the area of bad governance. A major block to using the law is a psychological one – people make the assumption that you can’t “get” government officials. The popular belief is that it’s impossible to arrest a corrupt judge, a governor, or a king, so why try?
In Australia you legally cannot get a king, it’s true — the monarch is above the law — but nobody else is. Granted, there is some legal immunity for members of government. Per the common law that both the US and Oz inherited from England, you can’t arrest a legislator for making bad law or a judge for a bad ruling in a case. But that’s not to say that such person cannot commit outright crimes. No one, except the monarch, is protected when he/she commits a crime.
What about the corruption of the judiciary? This is killing us. So are the judges all immune? I think they can be charged with the crime of obstruction of justice. But if that sounds too close to the protected area (“he is immune from punishment for a ruling he made in a case”), we can go for treason instead.
The Grand Jury
Could there be anything more ridiculous than people giving up their well-established legal right to start investigations of any bad activity in their locale? The correct way to do it is to have citizen-run – NOT court-run – grand juries. This means 24 men and women who meet regularly for up to two years. They welcome reports from other citizens.
The subject matter could be house break-ins; it does not have to be corrupt judges. But today a person complaining of a house break-in will easily get assistance from police and courts, so here I am addressing only the issue of charging with crime a member of government.
You may be surprised to hear that Justice Antonin Scalia made this statement about the grand jury (in the 1992 case US v Williams):
“[The grand jury] can investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated … It need not identify the offender it suspects … The grand jury requires no authorization from its constituting court to initiate an investigation, nor does the prosecutor require leave of court to seek a grand jury indictment.” [Emphasis added]
Annett in Canada, re the Residential Schools
I don’t know of anyone today who is using citizen-initiated grand juries. In Canada, the group led by Rev Kevin Annett has used something called a Common Law Court in which they proceed to indict and try a person for crime.
The suspected person – such as the prime Minister of Canada – is sent all the document to be used against him, and is of course invited to attend. No government person ever does attend, though. That would validate the upstart organization!
Annett’s “International Tribunal for Crimes of Church and State” – ITCCS — then provides a prosecution. The alleged criminal is tried in absentia. If a guilty verdict is reached, the ITCCS issues an arrest warrant. They have actually issued warrants for monarchs and popes – downloadable from the Internet, for any citizen to use.
The crimes have to do with the murder of First Nations children in schools where they were forced to live. I believe a similar genocide took place in Ireland but I have not looked into it. The one in western Canada is well-documented.
Take It Easy
I am encouraging something less than the whole hog. I am glad Kevin Annett has gone the whole hog, but very few are (so far) joining him. I encourage only a proper grand jury.
The most such a body could do is investigate and then issue indictments. It would then privately hand the list of indictees to the government.
I say “privately,” as it has long been the practice to protect a citizen from a public investigation while there is still doubt that a crime has been committed by him. The government is then supposed to act on the indictment. Per the 5th Amendment of the US Bill of Rights, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital…crime, unless on a presentment or an indictment of a grand jury.”
Wait till you hear how constitutionally respectable a citizen-run grand jury is. Justice Scalia, in the same 1992 case quoted above, noted that the 5th amendment is the only mention of “grand jury” in the US Constitution. It does not appear in Articles I, II, and III that govern the distribution of power to the three branches of government.
Hence we must assume that the courts do not have a role in relation to grand juries – other than calling the grand jurors together and administering the oath to them. Scalia said:
“[The grand jury] is a constitutional fixture in its own right … it belongs to no branch of the institutional government, serving as a kind of buffer or referee between the Government and the people…
“Recognizing this tradition of independence, we have said the 5th Amendment’s constitutional guarantee presupposes an investigative body ‘acting independently of either prosecuting attorney or judge.” [Emphasis added]
Holy wow. That’s quite different from the way the Department of Justice runs the show. There, the prosecuting attorney “guides” the whole process. So anyone called to grand-jury service needs to be prepared to be intimidated by the prosecutor, and needs to not tolerate that intimidation.
When it comes to government misbehaviour, the grand jurors also must realize that once they are empanelled, they can snoop around and bring in suspicious matters on their own. Similarly, citizens can proffer information to them.
“Hands Across the Charles”
Boston is the scene of Jahar’s Tsarnaev Marathon trial (he is said to have bombed the 2013 Marathon race, but there is not a scrap of evidence to prove it). The Charles River separates Boston from Cambridge, but here I make the metaphor of Boston being separated from “anywhere else” by the Charles.
I claim the people living anywhere else should get into solidarity with Boston in this matter. Certainly people in western Massachusetts can call a grand jury having to do with any personnel in the 2015 trial of Jahar that operated in defiance of the law. (Many did, say I.)
And there are also federal grand juries. Oh, by the way, there is nothing to stop a grand jury from investigating – if they suspect wrongdoing – members of a previous grand jury.
Bill Windsor’s Advice
Bill Windsor is the producer of the Youtube series “Lawless America.” He knows what he is doing. He suggests that if your state does not allow the grand jury to receive reports made by citizens as to wrongdoing, you should file a lawsuit. You’d simply request that the court place an injunction on that illegal practice.
Clever, eh?
The bottom line here is: 1. Know your rights as regards grand juries and feel your oats; 2. Meet with fellow citizens and at least go through the motions of investigating; 3. Issue an indictment if you determine that someone has a case to answer for; 4. Send it to the government.
Tassie
As regards the continuing, outrageous incarceration of Martin Bryant, I’m not sure if the Bill Windsor suggestion is usable in Oz. I have been told that in all states except South Australia the practice of having a grand jury has disappeared.
Even so, the philosophy of “a buffer between the people and government” has never been formally rescinded. Think what good it would do for prisoners, such as Martin Bryant, if little groups on the mainland were meeting to toss these ideas about.
Clearly there are many concerned citizens. Here are just some of the locations of persons who signed the Change.org petition, heaviest states first:
QLD (46) – Alexandra Heights, Anmamoor, Atherton, Beerwah, Brisbane, Brunswick Heads, Bundaberg, Burleigh Waters, Cairns, Cloncurry, Doonan, Gin Gin, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Jimboomba, Keperra, Kuranda, Logan City, Maleny, Mapleton, Maroochydore, Mareeba, Mermaid Waters, Merringadan, Millaa Millaa, Mooloolaba, Mt Gravatt, Narangba, Nebo, Noosa, North Arm, North Maclean, Pallara, Pelican Waters, Redcliffe, Rockhampton, Runaway Bay, Russell Island, Samford, Springwood, Sunshine Acres, Surfers Paradise, Townsville, Toowoomba, Underwood, Urangan.
NSW (35) – Sydney, Berkeley Vale, Bingleburra, Blaxland, Blue Knob, Bray’s Creek, Cessnock, Dorrigo, Ettalong Beach, Faifield West, Five Dock, Glendenning, Larnook, Lennox Head, Lismore, Mallabula, Marrickville, Merrimbula, Monto, Newcastle, Newington, Nowra, Penrith, Pennant Hills, Port Macquarie, Remo, Tuckurimba, Sandy Beach, Suffolk Park, Wagga Wagga, Willoughby, Winmalee, Wolloomooloo, Woolongong, Yass
VIC (20)– Melbourne, Altona North, Avondale Heights, Blackburn, Bonbeach, Brookvale, Dandenong, Edenhope, Endeavor Hills, Frankston, Ferntree Gully, Geelong, Maryborough, Melbourne, Oakleigh, Oldina, Point Cook, Rowville, Templestowe, Warrangal
WA (11) – Perth, Albany, Beechboro, Bunbury, Busselton, Clarkson, Doubleview, Jolimont, Killarney Hts, Muchea, Quinns Rocks
SA (7) – Adelaide, Berri, Ceduna, Largs Bay, Mitcham, Windsor Gardens
ACT (4)– Canberra, Tuggeranong, Charnwood, Oxley
NT (2) – Darwin, Alice Springs
There were also 12 towns in TAS — Hobart, Berriedale, Burnie, Cygnet, Devonport, Greens Beach, New Town, Launceston, Margate, Mowbray, Natone, Risdon.
Note: don’t worry that your efforts won’t have an immediate effect. Playing the role of grand juror is enormously empowering.
–Mary W Maxwell believes in taking up any methods that are available and are legal.
Photo credit, Bondi beach: ABC.net.au
Warning. If your grand jury chooses to meet at Maslin’s Beach, SA, there is a dress code.
If I understand what you are saying. The grand jury is fed information by the district attorney to come to the conclusion the DA wants. There is no investigating by the citizens who are in the group called the grand jury. I have been involved in my local court system where members of my family were brought up on charges of a crime. I am not rich but I used my savings to defend them. I hired my own investigator. He happened to be retired from the FBI. One case went to trial and my family member was found not guilty. Other cases never made it to trial and it was dismissed. I only learned of how to do this with an attorney I hired the first time who undertook this method. While I was in court with my own cases I witnessed others who did not have the means or whose family members did not back them and I watched them plead guilty time after time and now have a felony. They had no other choice. They were advised this by crummy lawyers to plead guilty because most lawyers do not want to go to trial. Especially if you cannot afford to pay them. Now my case is not as massive as Jahar’s but I can relate to what you are saying.
Now here I maybe off topic but if you look around our lawmakers like to pin our children with felonies. I am 70 years old but I can tell you I learned a lot of what I know today by being brave and pushing the lines. I guess you would call it learning in the streets. The police and those days would slap you on the hand and send you home to your parents and say if I see you doing this again I will go see your parents myself. It worked. Today one inch off the line and they are throwing you in jail and trying to pin you with a felony that ruins your life forever. Now talk about parents. As we go forward someone is ruining the family unit which I need to pin on our policies. The US we all know is responsible for testing with drugs and bringing them into our society. They support and encourage woman to bring men to justice Which is OK until woman start falsely accusing and when found out to be lying there is no justice for the man to convict for the wrong being done to him. Today woman are all over the news stating what men did to them 40 years ago. Forty years ago was a different world. These men are given public justice of resigning. No jury has convicted them of a crime. I am not advocating that the stronger person beating up on a weaker person should get away with it. However let crimes of the past stay in the past but going forward if there were a group of citizens who investigated the victim has a place to complain but also the perpetrator has a right to defend himself. I end this with not only with stronger ways to defend ourselves when being accused, but also repair the family.
I live in Western Mass. It is a blue state and I find that many people here believe in what the national news (CNN and others) put out. I mean they believe it like written in the ten commandments .I have tried to have conversations but they went no where. In fact my defense of Jahar has brought me many enemies. They believe he had a fair trial and got what he deserved.
I would like to see something on national TV that states the news against Jahar was fake news. The only place we are seeing fake news exposed is when it involves a wealthy person. I would also like to see a film showing what we who defend him think what happened. It would never make it to national TV but how do we put together a documentary or what is called a independent film.
My son has a friend who has put together a couple of independent films.
Karen:
Having taken roughly the same course re groundless prosecutions against me and my family I must say you’re absolutely right in every respect.
The system has become what it’s become because most folk have a totally skewed concept of success/failure & effort/reward. Bryant/Jahar scenarios are just the end game; no question as to who will ultimately be called to account.
I’m hearin’ ya, Karen, I’m hearin’ ya. But we can’t tell blatant lies as in the movie Patriot’s Day.
How can we show where Jahar REALLY was during the 18 missing hours before caught in the boat? We have no idea.
Can we really show Tamerlan getting beaten up in custody?
Did Jahar really do the milk exchange at the time shown on the Whole Foods date stamp? If so, then he arranged to be filmed there. (I think that is likely; I think he was an FBI informant as it tends to run in families and Tam defo was.)
RE Danny. Should we show 2 boys OTHER THAN Tsarnaevs doing a mock carjack? I’d say it is possible that the story was not 100% made up by Danny but that the FBI provided him with a couple of stooges to go thru the motions of calling for help.
But of what value is my speculation?
Anybody else want to come in on this problem of movie-making?
I believe weather or not Jahar and Tamerlan were informants they were looking for help. They either were not at the bombing and made to look like they were there which explains why Jahar was acting like nothing happened. I read somewhere during a telephone call to his mother Tamerlan said, “since when do we go to the Marathon”. In this modern day videos can be made to convince the public of anything. If they were there they were placed there as patsies. To put a film together it has to first be proven were they at the marathon. Who were they looking for. Why did they go to the UMass Campus. Could have been Danny. Danny could have been part of the plot. Why was the MIT officer killed. It would take a person with no empathy to kill that young man. Most in our government lack empathy. That has been proven by the fact children are killed overseas when US drops bombs.
Also I have learned of the late that the Mass Governor, Deval Patrick, is considering running for President 2020. This will all be hashed over main street TV if he does.
Well so far as I’m concerned ANY prosecution that flouts Criminal Procedure restrictions and requirements is a declaration of gang warfare. Everything else is beside the point.
This site is as close as we will get to a grand jury in Australia.
Karen we even have a special court here for tearing apart families, and the ones that would have disolved are relieved of any financial rainy day money should they have some.
Dress code, footwear optional ugg boots or doc martins ok
Simon, the dress code at Maslin’s is unique.
Flip-flops possibly allowed.
Nothing else.
Well Simon, if you’re not prepared to acknowledge that the travesty known as “family law” is simply the consequence of giving the likes of Malcolm Turnbull undue credit……………….
https://www.facebook.com/reichreport/videos/10156164105039684/
worth a look
Diane, it’s hilarious that your reply appeared right under mine.
I once asked a taxi driver in Adelaide what is the longest ride he was hired for (or what the highest fare was.). He said:
Sometimes men from [named a country] ask me to take them to Maslin’s and they sit in the car for a while and watch.
They’re changing guard at Buckingham palace OMG see Prince Harry is to interview Obama–in the preview Obama offered to interview Harry–
George Brandis—https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Brandis
After months of speculation, the ABC has confirmed Attorney-General George Brandis will leave Parliament to take up the post of Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-18/george-brandis-to-take-over-as-australias-uk-high-commissioner/9267482
“After months of speculation, the ABC has confirmed Attorney-General George Brandis will leave Parliament to take up the post of Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.”
Brandis is being forced out due to digging himself further and further into the whatsitsname over Senator Culleton.
Senator Culletons desire to fix Australia and the skills of his support team, one of whom I understand is a plumber by trade but who is an expert in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution; is what has brought about Brandis’s departure.
I’d go with #BOSTON WRONG in big bold (hmmm, irridescent PLATINUM WHITE letters would be a statement, even on a backpack!) – since everyone there’s been heavily indoctrinated with the BMB, er BMF (Boston Marathon Fiasco) and the catchy verbal ‘logo’ boston strong (which awake and consciously aware people are fully knowing how wrong that slogan truly is. I think you might get something back from keeping it to two words (that speaks volumes of its own – you lose ’em (their attention spans) after three words…
No prob, Jana, I can think of two words.
Berry I blame Thomas Aquines , yes turnbull follows the rules of the game, he will sign any free trade agreement, his hands are in so many pies now , and he help derail the Australian Republic push back . It will be a while before we have Sir Malcolm Turnbull, but it will happen.
If you think insurance premiums are expensive and pervasive, look no further.
I do flounder though Berry, darned if I can see the head.
Thomas Aquinas & Saul(Paul) of Tarsus were both men of tremendous insight but all said and done they were just men. Paul said it himself:
“I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
So why is he called a saint ? Because its easier to attribute supernatural power to someone or other than take personal responsibility perhaps?
Easier to run to the “Family Court” than own up to decisions made as a consenting adult?
Easier to put an innocent man in jail than face up to what your own government is up to?
This place was set up as a penal colony . It has remained that way for 230 years ( exception being a few brief decades , sixties and seventies , in order to set the trap ) . Initially ruled by the crown and now their children , that are the banksters of the global communist world order . The TFA agreements , singed by our Goldman Sachs man , will bring in the third world immigrants to work at third world rates to serve the 1% and their 9% security forces . Justice is just ice . “The rich get richer and the poor get the picture” – Peter Garrett .
Money talks and crime and corruption walks .Debt slavery has stolen from the workers that built this nation and now they are handing us over to the CCP , while the nation is being tranceformed from the “idiot box” to the Internet age , brainwashed by trivial diversions and the financing of continuous wars and deceptions .
It would seem so Berry, it would seem so
Last night a friend in Boston asked me to help him hand out 9-11 leaflets. Most people walked past me, some took the hand-out silently, and a few actually said “Oh, thank you.” I reckon my leaflet uptake was 30%.
But my friend who is tall and handsome got about a 75% uptake of his leaflets.
Moral of the story: Don’t preach about 9-11 if you’re not good-looking.
Mary my husband has said the same for a number of years. One has to be pretty before anyone will listen. You see it in the US news media.
Also, Karen, a male candidate for Congress will get more votes if he has a big chin.
Mitt Romney comes to mind.
lol