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Never Mind Other Remedies, Proceed Directly to Special Grand Jury

This paragraph voids paragraph 11 and supplants all proven remedies from the Right of Recusal to appeals and other disciplinary actions our South Dakota laws ordain.


Our response:

Here again, is another example of the No-On-E Club's inability to comprehend the English language. Were the attacks to Amendment E on the No-On-E website written by children? Clearly, paragraph 17 is titled "Criminal Procedures." Paragraph 11 deals with civil procedures. Do they not understand there is a difference? Criminal procedures are handled by the prosecutor; civil cases do not involve the prosecutor. If one were to attempt to initiate a criminal prosecution themselves in front of a civil court, they would be booted out of court and likely sanctioned. The Club argues that paragraph 17 "voids paragraph 11." What utter nonsense!

Paragraph 17, to which the above comment is made, starts out: "In addition to any other provisions of this Amendment, a complaint for criminal conduct against a judge may be brought directly to the Special Grand Jury,..." [emphasis added] when four specified conditions have been met.  (Listing them- see below). Paragraph 17 does not void any other provision of the Amendment, but is "in addition" to them, as it states. It covers its own subject, "Criminal Procedures" which has its own procedures.

On the other hand, paragraph 11 states mid-way, "Except as provided in paragraphs 17 and 22, no complaint of misconduct shall be considered by the Special Grand Jury..." unless all judicial remedies have been exhausted. The exhaustion of remedies is not required for paragraph 17 (criminal matters) as it is for ¶11 (supra).

The four conditions which must be met in order to bring a complaint for criminal conduct directly to the SGJ are the following: "(1) an affidavit or declaration of criminal conduct has been lodged with the appropriate prosecutorial entity within ninety days of the commission of the alleged crime; (2) the prosecutor declines to prosecute, or one hundred twenty days has passed following the lodging of such affidavit or declaration, and prosecution has not commenced; (3) an indictment, if sought, has not been specifically declined on the merits by a county Grand Jury; and (4) the criminal statute of limitations has not run." (¶17)

The remedy for criminal conduct is criminal prosecution, or indictment by a county Grand Jury --not "all proven remedies from the Right of Recusal to appeals and other disciplinary actions our South Dakota laws ordain." The "disciplinary actions" refers to the Judicial Qualifications Commission which is not a prosecutorial agency, and has nothing to do with paragraph 17.

 

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