Word: prosecutor
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...opinion. Powell explained that the Gannett decision was based solely on the Sixth Amendment. Though the Sixth guarantees the right to a public trial, it also guarantees a fair trial. If the defendant insists that an open pretrial hearing might prejudice his case, and the judge and the prosecutor agree, then the hearing can be closed. But, Powell said, the court did not consider whether the press has a right to attend trials under the First Amendment guarantee of free expression...
Trouble is, say Justice Department officials, there is almost no way for a preliminary investigation to establish that. Under the department's interpretation, it cannot subpoena witnesses, for example, or enter into plea bargaining. Both powers are granted to the special prosecutor. In consequence, top Justice officials fear, they may be forced to appoint a special prosecutor in the Jordan case...
Critics charge that the law practically invites opponents to smear high officials by making charges that, although false, cannot be disproved during a preliminary investigation. Defenders of the law argue that in some cases only exoneration by a special prosecutor can free a Government leader of the suspicion that allegations against him were covered up. But Justice officials last week were admitting that the very appointment of a special prosecutor would convince many Americans that Jordan had done something wrong...
Another case involving Jordan last week showed why a special prosecutor is sometimes needed. The Justice Department has impaneled a grand jury to investigate charges by a Georgia businessman that fugitive Financier Robert Vesco attempted to get Jordan and Charles Kirbo, a Carter adviser, to block his extradition from the Bahamas to the U.S., where Vesco faces trial for fraud. Since the probe began before the Ethics Act was passed, the Justice Department decided that the law did not apply. Last week Ralph E. Ulmer submitted to Federal Judge William B. Bryant his resignation as foreman of the grand jury...
Shernoff, 41, describes himself as "a one-man prosecutor going around the country imposing fines and penalties on insurance companies for illegal conduct." He argues that punitive damages offer the only effective way to protect consumers from wrongdoing by insurers, since claims practices are not closely regulated. In all of 1978, Shernoff points out, the California Department of Insurance collected $7 million for 13,000 claimants; but in just two months last spring, Shernoff won awards and settlements totaling $3 million for 26 claimants...