Fully Informed Jury Association

Minutes of the Annual Meeting
on January 17, 1998 at the Botanical Center, Des Moines

        The program included a business-luncheon at 11:00 a.m.  Chairman Dell Lawrence called the meeting to order at 12:30 p.m.

        The following officers were elected by unanimous consent:

State Coordinator - Dell Lawrence
State Chair - Frank Brown
Secretary - Carl Olsen
Treasurer - Tim Hird
Membership Chair - Jeff Ott
Newsletter Editor - Mike Broughton
        Co-Editor - Ruth Kabitski
        Co-Editor - Tim Hird
Lobbyist - Ray Perry

Retirement: John Hartog announced his retirement from the organization's Leadership Committee, a position he has held since 1989.  He will soon be moving to Omaha, Nebraska, to be near his family.  He agreed to assist Ray Perry in taking over his position as our lobbyist.  John will truly be missed, as he is the person who founded the Iowa chapter of the Fully Informed Jury Association, as well as the person who coordinated much of the activity for the state chapter.  John spent a tremendous amount of time keeping up with correspondence for the organization.  It will be a tremendous responsibility on the part of the members to continue the work he started and to maintain the quality of commitment that John has maintained over the past several year.  Our new officers have some large shoes to fill.

Treasurer's Report: Tim Hird reported $580 in our treasury.

Jay Shaw: Jay Shaw, whose son, Eric, was mistakenly shot and killed by an Iowa City police officer, addressed the members.  Mr. Shaw reported that justice was not served by the Grand Jury in refusing to investigate the circumstances of his son's untimely death.  One grand juror, Laurie Clockow, wanted an investigation, but the county attorney, Patrick White, told her that he would not prosecute.  An Iowa district court judge appointed a special prosecutor, but the Iowa Supreme Court ruled it was improper.  Mr. Shaw said there was something wrong with a system that leaves it up to an unwilling prosecutor to inform the grand jury.  The only witnesses that were allowed to testify before the Grand Jury were those who believed there should be no prosecution.  Anyone who believed otherwise was not allowed to testify.  All proceedings were secret.  In cases such as this, Mr. Shaw believes that Grand Juries should operate in full view of the public.  Mr. Shaw said that this case would erode public trust in the police and court systems.  Mr. Shaw believes this case should have gone before a petit jury which should have been allowed to hear all the evidence.

Larry Dodge: Larry Dodge explained some of the reasons why judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys should support a fully informed jury.  He went on to explain how new wording of a proposed fully informed jury act would alleviate some of the fears that have been expressed by these groups over the past few years.

More and more, judges are having their power of discretion in sentencing taken away by mandatory minimum sentencing.  A majority of judges are opposed to mandatory sentencing.  Judges should understand that trial and sentencing by formula does not produce good results.  A just verdict and a just sentence are unique to each case.

Some defense attorneys have opposed proposed fully informed jury legislation, because they felt at a disadvantage when attempting to argue the merits of the law.  New wording would prevent juries from being informed of their ability to judge the law as well as the facts unless the defense requests that they be so informed.

Prosecutors have been traditional enemies of fully informed jury proposals, because they want to win as many cases as possible to establish a good track record.  They worry about adding extra work to their workloads.  New language would require defendants who opt to inform juries of their ability to judge the law to admit to the facts alleged in the indictment.  This would eliminate the burden on the prosecution to present evidence to prove its case.

It has been suggested that fully informed juries be restricted solely to cases involving victimless crimes.  However, not everyone can agree as to what constitutes a victimless crime.  The solution is to let the defendant decide whether the crime was victimless by acknowledging the alleged act and asking the jury to make a finding that no harm was done.

Juries are at their best when discussing moral issues.  Instead, we make the private eyes.  Under our present system, juries are deprived of information that the public is allowed to access, such as television, radio and newspaper coverage.   We all have a conscience, and that is the reason we have juries.  The main function of the jury is to decide whether the defendant is a person who should be allowed to remain free in the community.

Peremptory challenges allow the prosecution and defense to remove a certain number of jurors without cause, depriving the defendant of an impartial and randomly selected jury.  Juries are commonly questioned during voir dire proceedings regarding their attitude toward the law, also depriving defendants of potential jurors who are exercising their freedom to disagree with the government.

Ed Fallon: State representative Ed Fallon requested a short (100 to 200 words) article for his next legislative newsletter.  The article needs to be submitted by the end of March 1998.

Panel Discussion: A panel discussion was led by Carl Olsen.   Pro-FIJA panelists were former state representative and FIJA legislation sponsor Lynn Schulte of Mt. Vernon, attorney and former state prosecutor Victor Dietz, and national FIJA field representative Larry Dodge.  Anti-FIJA panelists were assistant county attorney Nan Horvat, Iowa Trial Lawyers Association president Fredd Hass, and attorney and former assistant county attorney Maggie Moss.  Carl began by asking the panelists why he was not allowed during his criminal trials to explain to the jury why he thought it was not a crime to possess marijuana.  A two-hour tape was made of the proceedings and is available for review.

Signed,

Carl E. Olsen, Secretary, carl@carl-olsen.com