New York Times Examines Use Of Grand Juries To Investigate Kansas Abortion Provider Tiller

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Also Included In: Abortion
Article Date: 18 Jun 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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The New York Times examined the use of an 1887 Kansas state law allowing citizens to petition for grand jury investigations to demand investigations of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller - decisions typically left to prosecutors. Critics charge that the law, which was "meant to check official corruption, is being twisted into a political weapon" by opponents of abortion and pornography.

Kansas is one of six states that allow residents to petition to convene a grand jury. Petitioners must collect signatures from 2% of a county's turnout in the most recent gubernatorial election, plus an additional 100 signatures. State residents have petitioned at least 10 such investigations in recent years, two of which involved Tiller. Only one grand jury investigation, which was not related to abortion, led to a conviction.

The Wichita, Kan., grand jury currently investigating Tiller is examining whether he violated Kansas law, which allows abortions after 21 weeks' gestation in limited circumstances. The grand jury began deliberations in January and is scheduled to complete its work next month. One issue in the case was the scope of the grand jury's subpoena for medical records of women and girls who received abortions at Tiller's Wichita clinic Women's Health Care Services. The Kansas Supreme Court allowed some records to be turned over, but cautioned that the district court overseeing the case "should satisfy itself that the grand jury has not engaged in an arbitrary fishing expedition and that the targets were not selected and subpoenas issued out of malice or with intent to harass."

According to the Times, some legal experts are concerned that grand juries created by petition are being used for social and political purposes and are an inappropriate cost to taxpayers. Douglas Beloof, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Oregon, said, "This is an important check, and to the extent that it's used for political purposes as part of some sort of broader agenda, it threatens the viability of the check itself." State Sen. John Vratil (R) said the investigation of Tiller is an "abuse of the grand jury system," adding that the system is "being used in a political way to further a political cause, and that was never the purpose of the grand jury system in Kansas."

David Gittrich of Kansans for Life, who was involved in petitioning to convene Tiller's grand jury, said grand jury investigations are a "measure for the people to get some justice if law enforcement doesn't do its job, and that's exactly what we're doing" in the investigation of Tiller. Lee Thompson, an attorney for Tiller, said abortion-rights opponents are "using the grand jury ... as a tool to harass" Tiller.

A separate grand jury investigation of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri recently ended a petition-initiated investigation and did not make any indictments. The jurors in that case issued a statement requesting that the "current statute that addresses the formation of a grand jury be evaluated as to evidence required to call the grand jury" and the "percentage of the population required to convene a grand jury" (Davey, New York Times, 6/17).

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