Guest column: Huckabee's remarks are dangerous and besmirch grand juries

Recently, former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee stated, in referring to next year’s presidential election, “If these tactics end up keeping Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election decided by ballots rather than bullets.” By “these tactics” he was referring to ongoing judicial procedures — primarily in Florida, Georgia and the District of Columbia — in which former President Trump and others have been indicted.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     I understand Mr. Huckabee has a substantial following; does he understand what he might be causing by talking about bullets? Former President Trump recently in a speech made a brutal attack on the FBI. The next day an aroused supporter shot up an FBI field office in Cincinnati.

In Florida, Trump is accused of not returning classified government documents after repeated requests. In Georgia he is accused of illegally interfering in the state vote count in the presidential election of 2020. In Washington, D.C., he is accused of inspiring and supporting an insurrection to prevent the states from having their certified electoral votes counted and authenticated by Congress.

Mr. Huckabee should be aware that the goal of these judicial procedures is to seek the truth in the three matters.  These grand juries which rendered the indictments labored over them for many months. The grand jurors involved are ordinary citizens who take an oath to do their duty and support the U.S. Constitution, and they work hard to do a good job.

During my 12 years on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, I nominated a number of people, about 50 of whom served on various yearly Ventura County grand juries. These people were responsible citizens from Thousand Oaks and Camarillo. A small sampling would be: a retired school teacher; a retired school principal; a retired fire captain; a congregation president of a Jewish temple; a former letter carrier; an operator of a gas station; a college professor; a farmer; a plumber; a business woman; and Sunday School teacher. I believe these people would be typical of other grand juries.

What do they do? They meet at the county seat and, in criminal matters, they examine facts of alleged crimes and decide if the facts rise to the level of an indictment. The standard which needs to be reached is “probable cause.” Is there “probable cause” to believe that the subject person committed a crime? Individuals who reach that standard on the vote of the grand jury are indicted and will become defendants in a future trial. Being named a defendant in a trial is not a conviction; it is an attempt to find if the subject is guilty or not guilty.

This system of trying to get to the truth is based on what is termed Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. It dates back to the 14th century in England when presidents for our current system were established. The idea is to have a trial in which facts are submitted both by prosecution and by defense to a fair-minded jury, with a judge to maintain adherence to the rules. Jurors are questioned before being seated to be sure they will have an open mind and the witnesses at the trial are sworn to tell the truth. We go through all this to reach a verdict. The word verdict is from Latin and means “to say the truth.”

Also, the standard for conviction in a trial is much higher than in an indictment. It is “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt” and must be found unanimously by an impartial jury of 12 local citizens. The defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty. Since the system involves people, it is not perfect, but it has been determined to be the best we can do over a period of a thousand years.

Mr. Huckabee should rethink and retract his intemperate remarks before someone gets hurt. It’s too late to change impending events, and he should be honest with himself and realize the reason for the indictments and future trials was the behavior of Mr. Trump and the normal workings of our judicial system. The rule of law is essential to a democracy.

Ed Jones is a former member of the Thousand Oaks City Council and a former Ventura County Supervisor.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Huckabee's remarks are dangerous and besmirch grand juries