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Any delegates who do not have copies of
Amendments C or W will please indicate,
and the pages will bring them to you.
Any delegates who have not received a
copy of the amendment marked N, "N" for
"nobody," or C, W, or N, just keep your
hand up for a few moments.
Mrs. Marks, will somebody please get
copies of C, W, and N and bring them to
us?
Are there any other amendments to sec-
tion 4.31 ?
The Chair hears none.
Are there any amendments to section
4.32?
The Chair hears none.
Are there any amendments to section
4.33?
The Chair hears none.
Are there any amendments to section
4.34?
The Chair hears none.
Delegate Byrnes, do you desire to offer
your Amendment "A" for "able"?
DELEGATE BYRNES: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: The pages will
please distribute Amendment A. This will
be Amendment No. 18.
The Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. IS,
to 'Committee Recommendations EB-1 and
EB-2 as amended by Report S&D-13, by
Delegate Byrnes: On page 13, section 4.34,
State's Attorney in line 34 after the period
insert the following new sentence: "Candi-
dates for the office of state's attorney may
cross file in party primary elections and
shall run in party primary elections and in
general elections without party designa-
tion."
T,HE PRESIDENT: The amendment is
offered by Delegate Byrnes.
Is there a second?
(Whereupon, the amendment was duly
seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: The amendment is
seconded by Delegate Barrick.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Byrnes.
DELEGATE BYRNES: Mr. Chairman
and members of the Convention: I do not
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want to devote a great deal of time to you
again. We submitted this to your considera-
tion on first reading, and it lost by I think
only ten votes. Subsequent to that, a suffi-
cient number of people, I might say, sug-
gested that they might like the opportunity
of voting on it. There were twenty-five peo-
ple who were not able to vote the first time
around. To recapitulate briefly, the point
of the amendment is to attempt in a very
slight way to bring the office of state's
attorney closer to a non-partisan tone or
atmosphere.
We suggest that non-partisan office of
state's attorney is necessary. With the very
sensitive role that he plays in the prosecu-
tion of criminals and the protection of the
liberties of all the people of the State in
the jurisdiction over which he proceeds, this
is somebody we have to be very concerned
about.
This does not cover all the reforms, but
the Committee took a wise step forward in
permitting the General Assembly to estab-
lish state's attorneys in districts rather
than strictly counties. The point of that
suggestion by the Committee was to recog-
nize that from county to county to county
there are great variations in quality and
competence among the state's attorneys.
T.here is a great need in the future for a
consolidated, coordinated statewide system
of prosecution with some local autonomy.
This amendment says the state's attorneys
will have the same privilege that we af-
ford the judges. They may cross file. This
will grant the state's attorneys a greater
freedom of action. The state's attorneys
suggest that they find this to be a desirable
approach to their election.
The Executive Branch Committee itself
first decided that they were going to rec-
ommend this in the transitional legislation.
However, they were apprised of the fact
that this is not appropriate for that, and
they did not think it appropriate for the
Constitution itself. They therefore dropped
it.
I think this would be a very wise, formid-
able step forward at this point. It will not
be a dramatic thing. It will lead to a
greater efficiency and productivity and
raise the level of integrity and profession-
alism in all the offices of the State.
The last time we debated this, the point
was made effectively by Delegate Hanson
that the policies of the state's attorneys
are something that should be subjected to
the will of the people. We concede to that.
Certainly the law enforcement problem is
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