State lawmakers balk at activist’s call for grand jury reform

DES MOINES - In the wake of high-profile, emotionally charged grand jury cases that garnered national attention, an Iowa activist is proposing grand jury reform.

Key state lawmakers, however, met the idea with tepid responses.

Bob Babcock of Davenport, a member of the progressive advocacy group Progressive Action for the Common Good, said he is working on legislation that would require an independent prosecutor be assigned to grand jury cases that involve allegations of use of excessive force by law enforcement officers.

Grand juries determine whether there is sufficient evidence for an accused person to face charges.

The grand jury process has gained national attention in recent months when grand juries in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City opted against charging police officers involved in the deaths of suspects.

'This has been a big problem,” Babcock said. 'There are a lot of people that are upset, justifiably so, over the failures in our justice system.”

But two key state lawmakers - one Republican and one Democrat - said they don't see the need to reform Iowa's grand jury process because of incidents that occurred elsewhere.

'You don't just change the system because some other state or some incident or incidents happen that get national attention for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure you change a whole judiciary system because of that,” said Steve Sodders, a state senator from State Center, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a deputy sheriff. 'I just haven't seen the problems in Iowa. … I'm not sure there's a problem to be fixed.”

The House Judiciary Committee's chairman, Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, had a similar reaction to the proposal to require an independent prosecutor in each grand jury case.

'While in theory and in an isolated case that may be appropriate, and maybe there's a case like Ferguson, Mo., maybe that was one that was so sensitive and charged with emotion that maybe that would have been a smarter move,” Baltimore said. 'But I think to say that that's going to be our public policy and that's what we're going to do in every case I think is a knee-jerk reaction that simply is not warranted and ultimately would not solve the problem that (activists) think they're trying to solve.”

Babcock said introducing an independent prosecutor would eliminate any perception of local attorneys giving preferential treatment to local law enforcement officials with whom they work on a regular basis.

'This isn't about blaming. … But we've got a system in its very structure that seems to be broken,” said Babcock, who said he is working with state lawmakers to get a bill introduced during the upcoming legislative session. 'We've got to break that chain of conflict of interest.”

Sodders said that already happens in some cases when local attorneys refer cases to the state or state officials assist on investigations.