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 The recording of federal grand jury proceedings was not
explicitly authorized until Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure was adopted
in 1946. It allowed proceedings to be recorded, but did not require that a record be made.
Rule 6 was revised in 1979, and now requires that federal grand jury proceedings be
recorded, either stenographically or electronically. Recording was made mandatory as a
check on prosecutorial abuse of the grand jury process; the drafters of the revised rule
believed prosecutors would be less likely to engage in misconduct before a grand jury if
they knew a record was being kept of their activities.
Most of the states have followed suit. Thirty-six states (Alabama, Alaska,
Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
Virginia and Wyoming) plus the District of Columbia currently require that grand jury
proceedings be recorded. Twelve states (Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana,
Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin) still follow the
pre-1979 federal practice and make recording optional. North Carolina and Oregon require
recording under certain circumstances. In North Carolina, the proceedings of regular grand
juries are not recorded, but those of a specially convened grand jury must be. In Oregon,
the issue is addressed by two statutes; one requires that a grand juror be appointed as
clerk and take minutes of the proceedings; the other allows for the appointment of a court
reporter to record the proceedings.
States can be divided into five categories encompassing the methods they use to
record grand jury sessions. Twenty of them (Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado,
Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and
Wisconsin) use stenographic recording. Nineteen states (Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii,
Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode
Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming)
plus the District of Columbia allow the proceedings to be recorded either stenographically
or electronically. In 7 states (Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma,
Oregon and South Dakota), grand jury sessions are recorded by a stenographer or by a grand
juror who is assigned to keep minutes of the sessions. In Alaska and Idaho, the
proceedings must be recorded electronically. Florida requires that a grand juror be
appointed to take minutes of the proceedings, and Iowa assigns this task to a grand jury
clerk, who may or may not be a grand juror.
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