HRS § 612-60 - Grand jury counsel; court review

If the court finds that the grand jury counsel has provided the grand jury erroneous counsel or has acted improperly, the court may require that the grand jury be given the corrected advice or shall be advised as to improper action, and shall then continue the case. [L 1982, c 101, §4] Case Notes As applied to the facts of the case, the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the grand jury counsel's statements did not give rise to a tendency to prejudice and did not warrant dismissal of the indictment, where statement that defendant's case was in the newspaper was a fact already known to at least one juror, and statements regarding sex offender registration were clarified so that it made clear that the grand jury counsel was not stating a fact in defendant's case. 126 H. 40 (App.), 266 P.3d 448 (2011). The standard in grand jury counsel misconduct should be the authorized role and function of the grand jury counsel, that is, to advise the grand jury on the law to be applied in making its probable cause determination; thus, to warrant dismissal of an indictment, a defendant must show that the grand jury counsel's misconduct has clearly infringed upon the grand jury's decision-making function and invaded the province of the grand jury, and that the misconduct tended to induce action other than that which reasonable grand jurors, in their uninfluenced judgment, would deem warranted based on the evidence fairly presented to them. 126 H. 40 (App.), 266 P.3d 448 (2011).