by Douglas DeBono, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT StandingOrders.BlogSpot.Com, October 30, 2005

Whoever would have thought that America could develop a "legal" process more demeaning and tortures than the Spanish Inquisition. We call it the grand jury.

At least, the Spanish Inquisition finished you off in short order with minor things like burning you at the stake or pulling you apart on the rack. The anguish only lasted a few short hours.

Grand juries go on for years. Federal Grand Juries have a seemingly unending pile of money, lengthy terms and rules that violate any semblance of due process.

People called before a grand jury do not have the right to counsel, no notes and testimony can drag on for hours. Questions can range to any topic over any time period and you are expected to have perfect memory.

Take the case of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief aide to Vice President Cheney [Granted if you have a nick name like Scooter, you already have problems.]. He was indicted for obstruction of justice in the Valeria Plame case. He was not indicted for outing a CIA agent. He was indicted for testifying to something on a Thursday that might have happened on Monday 2 or 3 years ago.

I'm not here to defend Libby. However, I think a process that essentially shreds the constitution should be done away with. Or maybe we should just go back to the torture chamber and get it over with quickly.