I
116TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. R. 5779
To provide that in the case of a law enforcement officer who uses deadly
force against a person, and thereby causes the death of that person,
a hearing shall be conducted before a judge to determine whether there
is probable cause for the State to bring criminal charges against the
law enforcement officer relating to the death of the person, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 6, 2020
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CLAY, Mr. HAS-
TINGS, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. CICILLINE, Ms. MOORE, Mr.
JEFFRIES, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. MEEKS, Mr.
THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Ms.
PLASKETT, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Ms. OMAR, Mr. RUSH, Ms.
PRESSLEY, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. TLAIB, and Mr. COHEN) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
A BILL
To provide that in the case of a law enforcement officer
who uses deadly force against a person, and thereby
causes the death of that person, a hearing shall be con-
ducted before a judge to determine whether there is
probable cause for the State to bring criminal charges
against the law enforcement officer relating to the death
of the person, and for other purposes.
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•HR 5779 IH
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Grand Jury Reform 4
Act of 2020’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
The Congress finds the following: 7
(1) Grand juries are typically used as the proc-8
ess by which allegations of police misconduct are 9
prosecuted. 10
(2) There exists a symbiotic relationship be-11
tween local prosecutors and the law enforcement of-12
ficers who regularly testify in routine grand jury in-13
vestigations. 14
(3) The closeness of this relationship creates 15
public suspicion that accused police officers receive 16
preferential consideration from grand juries when 17
they are subject to grand jury investigations. 18
(4) Police officers have the right to appear be-19
fore the grand jury investigating allegations of 20
wrongdoing by said officer, and give testimony not 21
subject to a thorough cross examination. 22
(5) Grand jury proceedings are by law secret 23
proceedings. 24
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•HR 5779 IH
(6) The secret grand jury process has histori-1
cally resulted in a refusal to indict when the subject 2
of their investigation is a local law enforcement offi-3
cer. 4
(7) The recent grand jury proceedings following 5
the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have 6
followed historical tradition, ending with a refusal to 7
indict the law enforcement officers involved in their 8
deaths. 9
(8) The American people have lost confidence in 10
the secretive grand jury process when it is used to 11
evaluate allegations of police misconduct. 12
(9) The loss of confidence in our system of jus-13
tice leads to the undermining of the principles of 14
equality and justice upon which this country was 15
founded. 16
(10) Preliminary hearings are often replaced 17
with direct presentments, whereby the prosecutor 18
may send a case directly to the grand jury without 19
a public preliminary hearing. 20
SEC. 3. HEARING BEFORE A JUDGE REQUIRED. 21
(a) RECEIPT OF GRANT FUNDS.—In order for a 22
State or unit of local government in a State to be eligible 23
to receive Federal funding under subpart 1 of part E of 24
title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act 25
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•HR 5779 IH
of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 et seq.), the State shall comply 1
with the requirements of this section. 2
(b) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 3
(1) NOTIFICATION TO PROSECUTOR.—In the 4
case of a law enforcement officer of a local law en-5
forcement agency who uses deadly force against a 6
person in the course of the officer’s employment, 7
and thereby causes the death of that person, not 8
later than 24 hours after the death occurs, the chief 9
officer of the law enforcement agency of the locality 10
in which the death occurred shall report the death 11
to the elected prosecutor of that locality. 12
(2) NOTIFICATION TO GOVERNOR.—Not later 13
than 24 hours after receiving notice under para-14
graph (1), the elected prosecutor of the locality in 15
which the death occurred shall report the death to 16
the Governor of that State. 17
(c) HEARING REQUIREMENT; APPOINTMENT OF SPE-18
CIAL PROSECUTOR.— 19
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 days after 20
receiving notice under subsection (b)(2), the Gov-21
ernor of the State in which the death occurred shall 22
appoint a special prosecutor to present evidence on 23
behalf of the State at a hearing before a judge in 24
the appropriate court, in order to determine whether 25
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•HR 5779 IH
probable cause exists for the State to bring criminal 1
charges against the law enforcement officer relating 2
to the death of the person, which determination shall 3
be made by the judge. The Governor shall use a ran-4
dom process to select the special prosecutor from 5
among all of the elected prosecutors in the State, ex-6
cluding the elected prosecutor of the locality in 7
which the death occurred. 8
(2) TIMING.—The hearing described in para-9
graph (1) shall be held not later than 90 days after 10
the appointment of the special prosecutor, unless the 11
judge determines that good cause exists to delay the 12
hearing. 13
(3) COURT TO REMAIN OPEN TO THE PUB-14
LIC.—Except as determined appropriate by the pre-15
siding judge, in a hearing described in paragraph 16
(1), the court shall remain open to the public, and 17
upon scheduling the hearing the judge shall provide 18
notice to the public of the date, time, and location 19
of the hearing. 20
(d) STATE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY TO HAVE 21
EXCLUSIVE AUTHORITY OVER INVESTIGATION.— 22
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 24 hours 23
after receiving notice under subsection (b)(2), the 24
Governor shall report the death to the chief officer 25
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•HR 5779 IH
of the State law enforcement agency of the State in 1
which the death occurred, and the State law enforce-2
ment agency shall assume exclusive control of the in-3
vestigation of the death during the pendency of the 4
probable cause hearing. 5
(2) COOPERATION OF LOCAL LAW ENFORCE-6
MENT AGENCY.—The chief officer of the law enforce-7
ment agency of the locality in which the death oc-8
curred shall cooperate with the special prosecutor 9
and the chief officer of the State law enforcement 10
agency by responding promptly to requests for infor-11
mation related to the death. 12
(e) WRITTEN DETERMINATION OF PROBABLE 13
CAUSE.—Not later than 5 days after the conclusion of a 14
hearing described in subsection (c), the judge presiding 15
over the hearing shall issue the determination described 16
in subsection (c) in writing, and shall submit such deter-17
mination to the elected prosecutor of the locality in which 18
the death occurred. Such determination shall be made 19
available to the public. 20
(f) RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE SPECIAL PROS-21
ECUTOR.—Upon the conclusion of a hearing described in 22
subsection (c), the special prosecutor shall submit written 23
recommendations to the elected prosecutor of the locality 24
in which the death occurred, including a recommendation 25
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•HR 5779 IH
regarding whether criminal charges should be brought 1
against the law enforcement officer relating to the death 2
of the person. 3
(g) TOLLING OF PROCEDURAL DEADLINES.—Any 4
applicable filing or other procedural deadlines are tolled 5
during the pendency of the hearing described in subsection 6
(c). 7
(h) PRESERVATION OF PROSECUTORIAL DISCRE-8
TION.—The hearing described in subsection (c) shall be 9
purely advisory, and shall have no binding effect on the 10
elected prosecutor of the locality in which the death oc-11
curred. After the conclusion of the hearing described in 12
subsection (c), the elected prosecutor of the locality in 13
which the death occurred shall retain prosecutorial discre-14
tion as to whether to bring charges against the law en-15
forcement officer, including whether to hold a grand jury 16
proceeding in the appropriate court. 17
Æ
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