On Wednesday, the Michigan House of Representatives passed legislation introduced by State Rep. Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) abolishing one-man grand juries in Michigan. Meerman’s House Bill 4434 would amend the Code of Criminal Procedures by eliminating all statutory sections that create and permit one-man grand juries.

“One-man grand juries comprise an outdated and infrequently used legal maneuver that replaces civilian grand juries with a sitting judge,” Meerman said. “The one-man grand jury provision is antiquated and entirely inconsistent with the principles of fairness and impartiality that our court system was founded on.”

A one-man grand jury was used most notably in recent years by Attorney General Dana Nessel in her Flint water crisis prosecution. Due to the closed-door operations of the one-man grand jury, the defendants in this criminal prosecution were not allowed to know what evidence was presented against them. The Michigan Supreme Court refused to uphold the charges due to the defendants’ due process rights being violated, but one-man grand juries are still permitted under statute.

“Our due process rights were established at the dawn of this nation, and guerilla lawfare tactics like the one-man grand jury are completely inconsistent with these constitutionally protected rights,” Meerman said. “This outdated, egregious process has no place in a justice system where defendants are guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Moving this bill forward is a simple fix we the Legislature can take to uphold the principles this nation was built on.”

House Bill 4434 now moves to the Senate for further consideration.