Grand Jury testimony stays secret

Friday, March 11 2005 the Nebraska Supreme Court refused to allow disclosure to law enforcement grand jury testimony from a potential suspect, even though provisions of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure would have allowed opening up the testimony, In re Grand Jury of Lancaster Cty.,269 Neb. 436, No. S-04-587 (Note: link to the case on the Nebraska Supreme Court opinions website expires after 90 days. Lincoln Police Department investigators sought to review the appellants testimony to a 1990 grand jury hearing regarding the circumstances of her husband's death. The husband apparently had shot him self while the appellant his wife first said she was in another room when the shooting occurred. In another statement during a civil deposition the wife said the weapon fired as she struggled to take the weapon from her husband. The police department sought the wifes grand jury testimony at the insistence of one of the deceased's family member. The grand jury by the way did not charge the wife. The Lancaster County District Court held that the provisions of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6 applied and allowed the police access to the record of the grand jury proceedings. The Supreme Court disagreed stating that FCRP rule 6 was incompatible with Nebraska statutes on grand juries. Good sound ruling however the Nebraska Supreme Court has in the past adopted Federal Rules that were incompatible with state rulings. For example Nebraska's adoption of the "Daubert" standard for expert testimony in the case Schaferman v. Agland Coop, 631 N.W.2d 862 (Neb. 2001) overturned even recent rulings that upheld the Frye general acceptance standards. Nebraska Rules of Evidence and Criminal Procedure are both provisions of the Nebraska Legislature. When the Nebraska Legislature adopted most of the Federal Rules of Evidence, in Chapter 27 the Frye test applied. Why is it up to the Nebraska Supreme court to decide now was the time of abandon the Legislatures understanding of evidence law and replace it with current understanding from the Federal Rules of Evidence? This inconsistent application of federal procedural rules however might boil down to something more elementary. The Grand Jury's opinon author Lindsey Miller-Lerman usually finds a way to rule in favor of female parties.